Cancelled veteran and TV star Ant Middleton shoots back at ‘woke patrol’ in interview with Piers Morgan
British veteran and former ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ star Ant Middleton shot back at Channel 4 after it announced it would no longer work with him, amid the man’s criticism of Black Lives Matter and coronavirus lockdowns.
In a Wednesday appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Middleton denied making any intentionally offensive comments and blamed Channel 4’s decision on the increasing power of ‘woke’ political correctness.
In his first live interview since he parted company with Channel 4 @antmiddleton reveals to @piersmorgan and @susannareid100 why he left. He calls Channel 4 ‘desperate’ and criticises the show as a ‘half-scripted reality show’.He denies inappropriate comments on set. pic.twitter.com/Oq1RbEIrOH
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 3, 2021
Middleton also claimed that he had already decided to walk away from the show and that Channel 4’s decision to public disavow him was a public relations move to sweep in first.
It became a half-scripted sort of reality show. Full control was taken from me, from health and safety to production,” he said, adding that he told producers he would not “film anymore.
“I wanted to part in a healthy way and in a positive way, and they knew that I was going… They knew I was going and all of a sudden they drop this bomb about Black Lives Matter,” Middleton continued. “Ultimately what they’re doing is they’re protecting their brand.”
‘They’ve seen a bit of military banter.’ @Antmiddleton says the complaints of inappropriate comments to women on set were ‘banter’ and it’s just Channel 4 trying to ‘protect their brand’.He says the ‘woke patrol’ have kicked in while he’s stayed ‘true to the military’. pic.twitter.com/1D1M0CuDZd
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 3, 2021
Middleton had tweeted last June that Black Lives Matter and the English Defence League – a right-wing social movement hostile to immigrants – were “not welcome on our streets” after clashes between the two, calling them “absolute scum.” In the interview, Middleton pointed that the tweet wasn’t worded correctly, and that he acknowledged that.
In his controversial Covid-19 posts a year ago, Middleton advised followers to act according to their conscience and not the government regulations. He later admitted he was ill informed about the severity of the pandemic.
“All these excuses that are coming out, everything like inappropriate comments… It’s like, you’re on ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’, you know? We say inappropriate things, we do inappropriate things,” Middleton told ITV’s Piers Morgan on Wednesday. “If you get offended by them, then so be it. The course is a hardcore course. It’s hardcore, it’s gritty, you’re going to see inappropriate things.”
Also on rt.com ‘Spineless surrender to PC police’: Fans angry after soldier-turned-TV-star Ant Middleton axed by Channel 4 for ‘personal conduct’Noting that a soldier’s humour is “different” and the way that they “deal with situations is different,” Middleton alleged that they were originally allowed to be themselves on set, but “over the years PC patrol have kicked in, the woke patrol have kicked in, to the point where we can’t say anything. We can’t be ourselves.”
In its statement this week, Channel 4 claimed to have split with Middleton due to “his personal conduct,” adding that the channel’s and the veteran’s “views and values” are not aligned.
‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ is a show where Special Forces veterans put contestants through the elite Special Air Service’s (SAS) gruelling selection process until a winner comes out on top. Middleton had hosted the show since 2015.
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