This week, Melanie Sykes has opened up about her experience with Leigh Francis - otherwise known as Keith Lemon - who she says subject her to vile sexual jokes and offensive remarks for three hours while shooting his gameshow, Through the Keyhole.
In an episode of podcast, Frankly Speaking with Lynne Franks and Friends, Melanie shared details of working with Keith, and how when she alluded to his comedy giving license to sexism from everyday men, she was ‘annihilated’ by online commentators as being ‘bitter’.
Melanie appeared on Through the Keyhole in February 2018 after being convinced the do the show by her agent.
‘I had Jonathan Ross to my left and [Ashley] Banjo to my right… and the first that Keith said to me, in character, was “I bet your arsehole smells of flowers”’ Melanie explained. ‘It makes me want to cry now because I was so caught in the headlights and wasn’t expecting it, it just went from that to worst. I kept thinking “What am I going to do?”, I can’t get up and storm out because it will be all over the newspapers that I’ve walked out and it will of course be my fault. Everybody in the audience has a mobile phone so they could see, and for three hours I struggled through that. I got home that night, cried all night.
Melanie went on to say that despite being subject to hours of offensive jokes, none of it was content that could or would make it into the show itself – meaning that Francis was purely doing it to entertain the people in the room.
‘I didn’t think Keith was going to be like how he was on the other show where it’s all sex and blowjobs and talking about peoples arseholes,’ she continued. ‘[But] I was sat there and for the three-hour record [and] he did all of that stuff to me verbally to entertain the live audience. It was never going to make the edit of the actual show because Through the Keyhole is a family show, so what he did is use me to entertain the audience.’
Melanie called the head of production for Through the Keyhole, which was produced by Talkback until it’s cancellation in 2019, in order to ensure the final edit of the show didn’t show her looking distressed, as she feared it would be ‘detrimental’ to her career. While the company allowed her final approval of the editing, when Melanie also complained about Francis’ behaviour, she was told no one else had complained about it prior to her.
There’s loads of women who don’t say anything, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
‘I said it was a terrible experience and she went “You’re the first person that’s ever, ever complained about him.”’ Melanie detailed. ‘This is before #MeToo, so it wasn’t like I felt stronger because of it… but I said “You and I know, there’s loads of women who don’t say anything, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.” All of these things can hit the cutting room floor but my experience still lives and breathes.’
When Melanie alluded to a bad experience with Francis in a magazine column later on, she says she was ‘annihilated by trolls’ who called her ‘bitter’ and ‘old’. But this is exactly why she spoke up, because in her words, the character of Keith Lemon ‘gives voice to the men in the street, men in the office, men in your home to talk to women like shit and think it’s funny.’
She’s not wrong, many women would find being the subject of Keith Lemon’s jokes uncomfortable and distressing, but more so than that seeing them applauded by those who don’t only gives power to the type of comedy that if said by anyone else, would be cancelled. Comedian’s shouldn’t need to be sexist, or sexually harass women, to get a laugh, they should be good enough at their job that they can succeed in their role without perpetuating behaviour that, actually, has real world implications on the way women are treated.
This time, it appears Melanie may be getting a more positive reaction after detailing her experience with Francis, but there will no doubt be others that wish to see her silenced in order to protect a branch of comedy that production companies should be embarrassed to have ever aired. In actuality, we should be applauding Melanie for finally saying what so many have been thinking for so long, if we continue to put men – and ‘comedy’ – like Francis’ Keith Lemon on a pedestal, what are we really condoning when it comes to the way men talk to and speak of women?
It’s about time the world had a wake-up call when it comes to that type of ‘humour’, because it’s not just detrimental to women, it’s also simply not funny.
Grazia has reached out to representatives for Leigh Francis and Talkback but is yet to receive a reply.
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