JOE Lycett confessed to a fake news story about the wall mural in Birmingham as the chaotic Channel 4 show returned to our telly screens last night.
The comedian has come clean about being the mastermind behind a mysterious wall mural that was initially speculated to be the work of the elusive artist Banksy.
The artwork depicted Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz reaching for a pair of ruby shoes hanging from a high cable.
It appeared overnight on April 3 in Birmingham’s gay village.
But speaking on Channel 4’s Late Night Lycett, the comedian said it was actually done by Black Country artist Dion Kitson for the show.
He said it was among four fake stories the team had planted.
He admitted to the audience: “We made this whole thing up… it got so much coverage Banksy himself.”
And added that Dion Kitson was a “very talented young man”.
On X, Joe outlined his motivation for planting multiple stories.
He said he hated how the “world’s been turned upside down by fake news” so hoped their “silly fake news stories” would “take up space that more hateful or polarising fake news might otherwise have used”.
Joe had challenged viewers to guess which stories they were behind.
This comes after Joe was forced to apologise to his viewers after Danny Dyer slammed David Cameron.
The chaotic late night telly show returned for a second series last night with celebrity guests including Danny Dyer, Kate Garraway, Big Zuu and Big Brother winner David Potts.
In one sweary segment, host Joe reminded Danny how he famously branded David Cameron a t**t on Good Evening Britain – a one-off late night version of the ITV Daytime show in 2018.
He then asked the actor if there was anyone else he now wanted to call the word.
Danny said: “I think I’d like top retract that. No I don’t want to call him a t**t, I want to call him a c**t.”
The audience cheered as Kate put her head in her hands.
A giggling Joe appeared to receive a prompt in his earpiece and said: “I’ll apologise, I’ll apologise.”
Finding her voice, Kate then exclaimed: “I feel like I’m unleashed.”
Joe reiterated his apology, saying: “Sorry if you were offended by that.”
He then offered Kate the same opportunity as Danny to insult someone, but she said: “I don’t think I dare.”
In his foul-mouthed tirade back in 2018, Dyer said he didn’t have a “clue” about Brexit, and called it a “mad riddle”.
Speaking about Brexit, Danny said: “This whole Brexit thing, when you’re judging everyone on Brexit if they don’t know nothing about it. Who knows about Brexit? No one’s got a f**king clue what Brexit is. You watch Question Time, it’s comedy.”
Attempting to interject, Susanna Reid said: “Were you no clearer when Jeremy Corbyn…”
But Danny cut across her, saying: “No I ain’t got a clue, no one knows what it is – it’s like this mad riddle and no one knows what it is, right. So what’s happened to that t**t David Cameron who called it on.”
“Let’s be fair, how come he can scuttle off,” he said. “He called all this on, where is he? In Europe, in Nice, with his trotters up, where is the geezer? I think he should be held to account for it.”
