MasterChef star Gregg Wallace popped up in a TV show over the weekend – leaving fans stunned to see him back on screens after he was suspended by the BBC last November

TV fans were shocked and surprised to see Gregg Wallace back on screens this weekend as part of a weather focused special.

The 60-year-old TV chef stepped back from his work at the BBC pending an investigation into claims he showcased alleged abusive behaviour while working on the hit show MasterChef. While Gregg himself has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, he has been off of screens since the most recent season of MasterChef: The Professionals concluded in December last year.

Christmas specials of his show were also shelved as the investigation was due to get under way – and many fans have been left fearing he will never return to the network due to his circumstances – and the fact he has already been replaced by Grace Dent. Those tuning in to Channel 5 this weekend were therefore surprised to see Gregg back on camera in a documentary about a bitter snap of weather that hit the UK in 2018.

Grace Dent has replaced Gregg as a judge on MasterChef ( 
Image:
PA)
Gregg was featured in an interview segment – with other stars including actress Laila Morse, Countryfile’s Adam Henson and BBC metereologist Tomasz Schafernaker also taking part in the show. The documentary, titled Beast from the East: The Big Freeze of 2018, aired on Channel 5 on Saturday evening at 5pm.

Viewers were stunned to see the star on their TVs again – with one writing on X: “Gregg Wallace on Beast from the East? Bold move. His reputation’s already been through a storm.” While another typed: “Obviously C5 don’t give a f*** about what he’s done.”

Following his suspension from the BBC, Gregg made an attempt to defend himself online – as he blamed “middle-class women of certain age” for complaining about him. In a slammed social media video, he reflected on his decades-long career on TV and said: “Apparently now, I’m reading in the paper, there’s been 13 complaints in that time. I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age, just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn’t right.”

And in a second clip, he complained: “In 20 years, over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks, or sexual innuendo, can you imagine?” While his lawyers issued a stern denial of the allegations made against him.

In a statement shared by the BBC in November, Gregg’s legal team has said: “It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.” Following the reports of inappropriate behaviour, Gregg found himself on the receiving end of some choice words from music icon Sir Rod Stewart who claimed the TV chef had reduced his wife, Lady Penny Lancaster, to tears when she appeared on MasterChef in 2021.

The Maggie May singer wrote online: “So Greg Wallace gets fired from Masterchef. Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show but you had that bit cut out didn’t you? You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully. Karma got ya.”