David Walliams delivers savage dig at Simon Cowell after Britain’s Got Talent axe-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

David Walliams has taken aim at Simon Cowell a year after he was axed from Britain’s Got Talent.

After a decade as one of the judges on the ITV reality talent show, David was fired and replaced by Bruno Tonioli after leaked recordings revealed he’d made scathing remarks about contestants.

The comedian, 53, apologised for his offensive comments but then took production company FremantleMedia to court, suing them for ‘significant damages’.

He eventually reached a settlement, reported to be around £5 million, but has remained tight-lipped about the fallout since then.

However, during an appearance on This Morning on Tuesday to promote his latest children’s book, David didn’t miss his chance to make a dig at his former boss and colleague.

In a Q&A segment with young fans, David was asked by a boy called Jasper if ‘any of the characters in your books based on real people?’

David Walliams has taken aim at his former Britain’s Got Talent colleague Simon Cowell (Picture: ITV)

‘That is a good question. Whenever I’m trying to think of an evil villain I always think “what would Simon Cowell do?”’ he quipped, leaving hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley bursting out in laughter.

David then went on to explain how a Britain’s Got Talent contestant called Cockroach Ken also inspired a character in a previous book.

He then told kids to ‘keep their eyes and ears open as you never know when you might have a good idea for a story’.

Earlier this year David was questioned about his controversial exit from BGT.

He was axed from the ITV talent series after a decade last year (Picture: Dymond/ Thames/ Syco/ Rex/ Shutterstock)

He previously dodged questions about leaving the show (Picture: Dymond/ Thames/ Syco/ Rex/ Shutterstock)

During an appearance on Lorraine, he was asked by host Lorraine Kelly if he’d been watching the latest season of BGT and whether he was ‘sorry’ about how he left the show.

After looking briefly surprised by the question he responded: ‘I’ve been travelling a lot, so I haven’t had a chance to see it.’ He then went on to say he’s been enjoying all the extra time he’d had to be creative and continued to talk about his writing pursuits and other upcoming projects.’

Although his response made it clear he wasn’t ready to discuss the matter, some fans said his response was ‘diplomatic’ while others labelled him ‘bitter’.

After the case was settled late last year, Fremantle said it was ‘sincerely sorry’ that his ‘private conversations’ were published.

Metro.co.uk has contacted representatives for Simon Cowell for comment.

This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV1.

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