Church takes on Vegas

A few years back, there was an art exhibition in Liverpool; the organiser was delighted when Granada offered to devote its local arts programme to it. The then-unknown Johnny Vegas was given the role of presenter for the show, and she spent the day with him, showing him around, answering his intelligent questions. She was distraught to discover, then, that the finished piece was punctuated with pieces-to-camera of a sledhgehammer "what's all that, a child of three could do better" type "jokes".

Johnny Vegas is not an easy person to share TV screen time with.

As Charlotte Church discovered for herself. Vegas - apparently - enjoyed the hospitality on offer at a taping of her Channel 4 show:

At one point she shouted, “Shut the f*** up’, and slapped him.

An audience member said: “It was like watching a car crash.

“Johnny was off his face and took every opportunity to wind her up — she didn’t have the experience to keep him under control.”

It didn't help that she mentioned Sex Lives of the Potato Men. SLOTPM was the film which got roundly drubbed at the time. Although, to be fair, it's picked up much more positive coverage on Amazon, some of it even spelled properly. One reviewer even compared it to the Canterbury Tales.

Vegas response to Church's gentle probing?

“Well I listened to your album and it was shit.”

Which is a duff line and a missed golden opportunity - surely if the host of a struggling chat show says "your film was rubbish" the correct response is to look round and say "and what's this, Newsnight?"

The lowest moment came when Vegas claimed to have had sex with Charlotte Church's grandmother. She hit him. And on that bombshell...

music charlotte church johnny vegas