Comic reveals Steph’s Packed Lunch incident was all staged

Joe Lycett says his walking out of Steph's Packed Lunch yesterday was a prearranged publicity stunt.

The comic grabbed headlines when he stormed off the live Channel 4 show when host Steph McGovern exposed his apparent hypocrisy in using white plastic bottles after bemoaning their environmental damage.

Now he confirmed some fans’ suspicions that the incident was staged, joking 'I cancelled myself'

Lycett returned to the show today and said: "I decided that I wanted as many people to know about this story as possible - and how do you get press interest? Well, we have seen Piers Morgan, we have seen Patsy Palmer - you storm off a chat show. And so that is what we went for yesterday.’

"I cancelled myself!". @JoeLycett explains to @StephLunch why he stormed off yesterday's #StephsPackedLunch pic.twitter.com/jfm5AF9pWb

— Steph's Packed Lunch (@PackedLunchC4) July 2, 2021

He elaborated in a statement which said:  ‘Some of you might’ve seen or read that I had a "tantrum" on Steph’s Packed Lunch yesterday and "stormed off" the show. This is absolutely true.

‘What you might not know is: I planned the whole thing. Clear PET plastic bottles are widely recycled and contribute to the circular economy. If you put a clear PET plastic bottle in the recycling there’s a good chance it will become another clear PET plastic bottle. Coloured, and in particular white, PET plastic bottles are much harder to recycle.

‘I explained this on Thursday’s show, but later a picture with a bottle (made with white PET plastic) appeared on screen. Steph pointed out my apparent hypocrisy and I KICKED OFF (by ‘KICKED OFF’ I mean ‘took my mic off and left the studio’). All of it was planned, all of it rehearsed.

‘Today I seeded pictures of me drinking from one of these bottles which Greg James agreed to retweet. The tabloids loved it - Mummy’s all over the press! The bottle in question? Yop [the drinkable yoghurt sold in the white plastic bottles.

‘I risked my reputation as a jolly, affable and very-much-available chat show guest to say this as loud as I can: Yop, it’s time to stop using white PET plastic. What you sayin’ Yop?'

Lycett was accused of being unprofessional and thin-skinned after his first appearance on the show, and says it was the first time he actively accused Twitter to slag him off, so as to spread his message better.

He is looking into how coloured plastic bottles for his own Channel 4 consumer show Got Your Back, which he spoke about on McGovern’s show on Thursday.

But soon afterwards he appeared  blindsided during a jokey segment about transforming your garden to look like the Love Island villa, which involving a picture from his own backyard.

Lycett seemed taken aback when host Steph McGovern pointed out: ‘Isn’t that one of the bottles you said you’d stopped using in the picture?’

After a pause, he said: ‘I didn’t realise I was on Newsnight, Steph.’

The line got a laugh from those in the studio of the Channel 4, but the exchange apparently rattled the comic.

#joelycett #stephspackedlunch #gmb Joe Lycett walks off the day time show after saying earlier he has banned all white plastic from his house, and Steph spots one on the photo pic.twitter.com/GUj5s3yRjq

— Andy Barnett (@AndyBarnett787) July 1, 2021

As McGovern said: ‘Joe Lycett will be sticking around and telling us what he thinks about the idea of hitting the gym when you’ve missed out on a good night’s sleep’, cameras showed him removing his microphone and walking off set. 

As the show returned from the break, Steph then explained to viewers: ‘Joe Lycett was going to stick with us but he’s had to leave.’

The comic joked that both he and McGovern deserved Oscars for their performances, having kept the stunt quiet from most of the production crew.

Published: 2 Jul 2021