Gary Lineker claims BBC departure was ‘a case of quit or be quitted'
The former Match Of The Day presenter was asked if his departure from the corporation was 'of his own volition, or a case of quit or be quitted?' to which he replied 'the latter', during an interview with The New World, formerly known as The New European.
Advertisement
The 64-year-old left the BBC early following a post about Zionism which featured a depiction of a rat, historically an antisemitic insult, which he apologised for, saying he stands 'against all forms of racism'.
Lineker said he did not blame BBC director-general Tim Davie for his departure. Photo: Nick Potts/PA.
The presenter will no longer front BBC coverage of the 2026 World Cup or the FA Cup next season as had been intended, with his last episode of Match Of The Day coming on May 25th.
Speaking about his departure, Lineker said: 'That's what changed after that. I made a mistake and I immediately took it down and apologised, which I thought should have been enough.'
He went on to say that he believed he had complied with the BBC's impartiality rules as he had looked at the war in Gaza 'without a vested interest'.
Advertisement
Lineker added: 'I've got no skin in the game. I'm not Muslim, I'm not Palestinian, I'm not Israeli, I'm not Jewish. I come from a place of complete impartiality. And then it becomes about truth.
'People talked about me being antisemitic. I'm not anti-any group of people. Any race, any colour. But I am anti the killing of children.'
The former England striker went on to say he did not blame director-general Tim Davie for his exit, adding: 'Tim Davie I know and I get on well with. I know how difficult it is for him with what's going on.
'Do I dislike people at the BBC? Not the people that I know.'
Advertisement
At the time of Lineker's departure, Davie said in a statement that the pair 'agreed he will step back from further presenting after this season', after the former presenter 'acknowledged the mistake he made'.
Davie added: 'Gary has been a defining voice in football coverage for the BBC for over two decades. His passion and knowledge have shaped our sports journalism and earned him the respect of sports fans across the UK and beyond. We want to thank him for the contribution he has made.'
In his own statement, Lineker said that 'stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action'.
The ex-Barcelona player went on to say in The New World interview that he has toned down his use of social media following the incident.
Advertisement
He explained: 'Social media's changed a lot. People say to me 'when did you start having a view on things?', and I say 'well I've always had a view but social media gave me the platform'.
'Perhaps I wish it hadn't. I've come off X completely. I only use it to promote a podcast now. It's just become horrible. Nasty.'
Lineker also runs Goalhanger Podcasts which produces podcasts such as The Rest Is Football, The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Politics, and The Rest Is Entertainment, and the Leicester-born star revealed in the interview that his company would soon produce a science podcast.
The Rest Is Football podcast, which Lineker presents alongside former footballers Micah Richards and Alan Shearer, moved from the BBC to British internet sports streaming platform DAZN following Lineker's BBC exit.
Advertisement
The BBC has been contacted for comment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
2 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Good Morning Britain host issues warning to co-star as he lets slip off-air remark
Good Morning Britain returned on Friday with Kate Garraway and Adil Ray as hosts Good Morning Britain 's Adil Ray was forced to issue a warning to co-star Melvin Odoom on Friday's show. During the latest episode on 1 August, Adil, 51, hosted the ITV show with Kate Garraway, where Melvin, 45, presented the entertainment segment. As chat got onto the Freaky Friday sequel, Freakier Friday, starring original cast members Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, which had its London premiere on Thursday night, Melvin revealed an interesting fact. The presenter said: "Hey Adil, you know Lindsay, right? Are you best mates?" to which a red-faced Adil responded: "You know when I say things off-air, you're not supposed to repeat them! I had dinner with Lindsay, me and Lindsay had dinner together. She's lovely!" This prompted a stunned Kate, 58, to interject with: "Stop, how did this happen, where were you?" to which Adil insisted: "It wasn't a date, before you know, it wasn't a date! "We had mutual friends and we all went out for dinner, she came along, we sat next to each other and we had a lovely evening. She's absolutely adorable, she's a fantastic human, really smart, really intelligent and really well lived. Just great, great." It comes as the stars were out in style on Thursday evening at the London premiere of Freakier Friday. Over two decades after the hugely popular first instalment of the film, Jamie Lee and Lindsay were back together and ready for another switch-up. The sequel to 2003 Disney classic Freaky Friday hits cinemas on Friday, August 8. This time it has gone bigger and freakier - as it includes a four-way switch. Lindsay, returning as Anna Coleman, swaps bodies with her daughter, while Jamie, who once again plays the part of Tess Coleman, ends up switching with her soon-to-be step-granddaughter. Other returning cast members include Chad Michael Murray as Jake, who is Anna's on-off boyfriend in the original film, and Mark Hamon as Ryan, who is Anna's stepfather and Tess' husband in the first movie. Meanwhile, Jamie recently opened up on the reason behind the 23-year wait for Freakier Friday. Appearing on BBC's The One Show, Jamie told hosts Alex Jones and Clara Amfo the "truth" behind the decision to delay the film. Alex pointed out: "You really pushed for this movie to happen" to which Jamie agreed: "Yes I did." The Hollywood star added: "The truth is Lindsay had to be old enough to have a 15-year-old daughter. "People would ask me about the movie over and over again around the world and I would say 'yeah we'd love to do it, we love each other and we'd have a great time, Lindsay has to be old enough to be a teenager or the movie doesn't work'. "And then finally, I think it was in Australia, someone said 'she is' and I was like 'what do you mean?' because I've know her since she was 15. "She's a young girl. now she's a young mommy, she's this young girl. I don't know how old she is but someone told me and I was like 'oh, we can make a movie. Let's go'.
The Sun
2 minutes ago
- The Sun
My mum was a school dinner lady – here's here 4 ingredient recipe for a nostalgic childhood classic
A TIKTOKER has gone viral after sharing her mum's iconic four-ingredient recipe for a school dinner pudding that's bound to bring back memories. Kate Keogh posted the throwback bake on her account, and fans can't get enough of the old-school favourite. 3 And judging by the comments, she's unlocked a core childhood memory for a lot of Brits. If you grew up in the UK, chances are you remember whacking your spoon through a slab of this chocolate concrete in the dinner hall, often with a big dollop of pink custard on the side. 'This is just like the one we had at school,' one viewer said. 'Can't believe how easy it is.' Another added: 'It's not school dinners without chocolate concrete and pink custard! For anyone unfamiliar, chocolate concrete was a staple of British school dinners from the 1970s through to the early 2000s. It's a hard, crunchy chocolate traybake that almost always came served with vibrant pink custard, adding a sweet contrast to its dense texture. It's known for being so tough, you needed a strong spoon, or sheer willpower, to break through it. But fans of the pudding say that's all part of the charm. Now, thanks to Kate and her mum, who used to be a school dinner lady, you can recreate it at home with just four simple ingredients. And the best bit is it tastes exactly like the one you had in school. The simple chocolate cake recipe using only TWO ingredients - it's sweet and you won't even need to put it in the oven Kate said: 'This was one of my favourites, it brings back all the memories. We had so many requests for this recipe, and I can see why!' To make it, you only need plain flour, sugar, cocoa powder and melted butter. The dry ingredients get mixed together until they resemble a crumbly mess. 'It looks like mud,' Kate joked, as they pressed the mixture into a tray. A sprinkle of water and sugar over the top gives it that signature crunch once baked. After half an hour in the oven, it comes out smelling amazing and rock solid, just like it should. 'It cuts best while it's still hot,' Kate said, showing off a perfect square of chocolate concrete. 'It's school in a bite.' Fans flooded the comments saying how much they loved the nostalgic bake, with one person writing: 'This is EXACTLY how I remember it!'. Another added: 'Please make pink custard next, I forgot how much I loved that combo.' A third said: "One follower commented: 'We used to race to be first in line for this at school. It's legendary.' Kate teased she might share the recipe for chocolate crunch next, which is a slightly softer school favourite made with eggs, but it's the concrete version that's got everyone talking. TikTok has become a hotspot for nostalgic food trends lately, with creators reviving everything from cornflake tart to spam fritters, but chocolate concrete continues to top the list as a childhood favourite. With the summer holidays in full swing, this is the perfect treat to whip up with the kids or just for a throwback afternoon tea. Just make sure you've got a strong spoon and maybe a side of pink custard, for old time's sake. Method 3 Here's how to make it. First preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan/gas mark 4). Then grease a square baking tin (around 9–10 inches) with butter or line with baking paper. In a large mixing bowl, combine the plain flour, sugar, and cocoa powder. Mix well until everything is evenly combined – it should look like a dry, crumbly mixture. Then you will want to pour in the melted butter and mix again until it resembles a thick crumble texture. It won't look like a typical cake batter but that's exactly how it should be. Tip the mixture into the tin and press it down firmly using the back of a spoon or your hands. Really compress it so it's packed in tight as this helps it harden into that classic "concrete" texture. Drizzle a small amount of cold water over the top, then sprinkle over a little extra sugar. This gives it that signature crisp topping. Then bake it in the oven for 30 minutes. You'll know it's ready when it smells rich and chocolatey and feels firm on top. As soon as it comes out, cut it into squares while still hot, it'll harden fast as it cools. You'll want to serve it warm if you like it soft in the middle or let it cool completely for that full crunchy, authentic school pudding texture.
The Guardian
2 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The enduring brilliance of Peter Sellers: ‘There's never been a better comic actor'
Michael Palin Along with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers lit up my teenage years. I knew that Connie Francis would never return my love, but Spike and Peter delivered something almost as good – and that was deep, satisfying and highly contagious laughter. Laughter that made me so happy I forgot about my spots. Spike was the imaginative genius who wrote The Goon Show but it was Sellers who brought me to tears with his gallery of unforgettable characters: Major Bloodnok, Bluebottle, Henry Crun, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne. He was my hero long before I knew what he looked like. On my first day at Oxford university, I made a lifetime friendship founded on a mutual adoration of the album Songs for Swingin Sellers (with a pair of legs swinging from a branch on the cover). Sellers was not just a man of many voices, he was a gifted actor, and each voice came with a character. The more I heard him the more I wanted to be like him. He showed me there was something far more important than sport and girls and modern history class, and that was making people laugh. Woody Allen All I can say about Peter was that apart from all his character skills and voices and technical brilliance, he had a built-in funny quality and made you laugh the minute he appeared on screen. It's nothing you can learn and very few even successful comics have it. I'm sure there was nothing he could do to produce it or understand it himself. It was just magically there, that funniness. Sanjeev Bhaskar When I was a kid, my parents and their friends would have these dinner parties, for want of a better term, where the children were all fed first and then shoved into a room with the telly. One night, a film called The Party came on the TV, the one where Sellers plays an Indian actor. I watched it and I remember thinking: 'Is it possible to die from laughing?' Because I was laughing so much I was in pain. It's a controversial film now but I still love it, in the same way that I always defend It Ain't Half Hot Mum. We're living in a time where people strip things of context, and either celebrate or denigrate things. But for me his performance was so funny and it was so deftly done. Given its time, I don't find anything offensive about it. I think, crucially, he wasn't trying to be offensive. He had already played an Indian character in The Millionairess with Sophia Loren and that was why I suggested their song title, Goodness Gracious Me, for our sketch show, because it's reclaiming it. It sounds more grand than it really was, but we were trying to suggest a changing of the guard. But again, I wasn't offended as a child and I'm not offended as an adult. I think it's of its time. You wouldn't do that now – you'd find a good Asian actor to play the part – but I always had an affection for him. I think of the 10 years after The Ladykillers (1955) as peak Sellers, until Dr Strangelove (1964) – a work of genius. That period includes the first two Pink Panther films, The Pink Panther (1963) and A Shot in the Dark (1964), which is, I think, my favourite Clouseau. His brilliance until then is to do with the precision of his performances in terms of character, of vocalising and comic timing. Maybe he was trying to prove himself – his Fred Kite in I'm All Right Jack is a performance without ego. Then he suddenly became a global star, and I think that status meant he became less precise in his performances – until we get to Being There which was him back to his best: a really precise, detailed performance. There is a lot that has been written and said about Sellers and what always stuck with me was that his big fear was if you stripped away his characters you wouldn't find anything there. Blake Edwards said he had the best working times ever with him – and the worst. So I think that he was obviously a complicated person but when you look at it in terms of sheer talent, he was blessed. I don't think there's ever been a better comic actor. Lesley-Anne Down My father, like the rest of the country, absolutely adored The Goon Show, and I grew up listening to it. When I did The Pink Panther Strikes Again in 1976, I was working with an icon – I mean, not even human, he was like a god. The first time I met him was in Munich. The publicist on the movie said Peter wants to have dinner with you, and I remember they were really tense about it. They said: don't do this, and don't say that, and, you know, just be a certain way. It was like going to meet the queen. It made me very tense as well, but within five minutes we just hit it off. Obviously I was a bit younger than he was, he was my dad's age, but we got on exceptionally well. And unlike any amount of men that I have worked with or come into contact with on both sides of the camera, he was a total gentleman for the entire shoot. And it was a very long shoot. Today it would have taken about three weeks, but because it was Peter it was 14 weeks. He'd just be laughing and playing jokes and tricks all day long, sometimes we never actually got a shot completed. We hung out basically day and night for 14 weeks. The crew was huge. It must have cost a fortune but everyone was on board with it, it was like being at a comedy show. Everybody laughing, everybody having fun. I mean, it really was an amazing experience. He didn't sleep very much, he liked to stay up all night and end up in the clubs. He loved [vocal ensemble] The Manhattan Transfer, which at the time was a great sound. He smoked a bit of dope, too. I don't think Peter really liked himself particularly, but a lot of comedians are that way. They're depressed and they cover it up with laughter. He was always searching for happiness, and people didn't take tremendous care of themselves back then. Nobody said, I've got to go to the gym or the treadmill; people just ate and drank what they wanted and did what they wanted. I knew there was a side of Peter that could be difficult or disruptive. I had been told about it, but I don't remember any of that. I think there was one day that Peter and Blake [Edwards] were sitting in their chairs on set, and they were a little bit tense and not talking to each other. I don't know what that was about, I wasn't privy to it. But that was the only time that I ever saw anything. I didn't see Peter being cross or upset or nasty or anything. I only saw his funny, jolly, kind side. We got on like a house on fire. He was a genius. Seriously, what a career. Christopher Guest I met Peter Sellers once. The cast of Beyond the Fringe stayed with my family in New York, and I had the effrontery to ask Jonathan Miller if I could be his assistant. So I went to London and worked on his BBC film of Alice in Wonderland. We were doing some recording at Shepperton studios, and Sellers stopped by. It's hard to believe I did this, as I was 19, but I thought it was a good idea to start doing a voice that I thought he should hear. He didn't say anything: he just looked at me and nodded. I had seen everything he'd done, heard most of what he'd done; he was a very important person for me in the beginning of my career. I guess I fancied that I could do the same thing, like doing different voices. You see, I can do a voice, but Sellers was embedded in those characters, and that commitment made it very different. Obviously he was funny, but he did something that no one else was doing. His early films are fantastic, including the ones where he has smaller parts. Obviously the Kubrick stuff is surreal in many ways, he was given the freedom to do what he did. People just didn't work that way and when he did films for directors that knew enough to let him do that, the results were great. Blake Edwards is not a great comedy director but he was smart enough to let Sellers take off and do what he did. This is a little embarrassing, but I remember when he had his first big heart attack in the 60s. I heard about it on the radio. I remember getting extremely upset and actually praying. I had never prayed in my life, and I haven't since. But I thought, please, to just whoever, I prayed that he would not die. Geoffrey Rush I remember seeing Tom Thumb when I was seven – a studio picture, but Sellers was still a Goon. At that stage, he hadn't decided to make a jump for film stardom. Because at the time, being a Goon was a privileged position. He had a 10-year contract, he and Spike were absurdists and were jazz guys. They put that into their comedy. When I played him [in 2004's The Life and Death of Peter Sellers], I researched the role for the picture, and I found a copy of almost every Sellers film that existed. You can see the sense of adventure that he had with the early films: Carlton-Browne of the FO, I'm All Right Jack, The Mouse That Roared. I asked everyone if they'd met him. My publicist in the US was a young man who once had to go around to his house and shift some furniture. He said Sellers was very brusque and had no truck with some nobody from some agency. I found that quite interesting. I also met Marty Baum at [talent agency] CAA who handled a lot of Sellers' contracts in the 70s. Marty said: a lot of people thought Sellers was complicated, a mess and whatever, but I only ever saw an erudite, very polite, very articulate, very intelligent gentleman opposite me at my desk. These are the some of the mosaic bits that we put together to make a biographical film. We wanted to take on the complexity of egomania, super talent, genius. Sellers would have been around so many buzzy, brilliant actors in his career, but unlike him they all didn't know how to define themselves. People often asked me how I related to him; and I would say: I went in every day and every day in front of the mirror I played somebody else. I think there would be some psychic wear and tear from that. There was something in his personality that was very self-regarding but I would imagine he could have been absolutely hilarious to be with. If he was on, it would have been like a raging bushfire. And ultimately, when he gets to Being There (1979), that performance is as subtle as the greatest Chekhovian performance in a theatre. The thing I remember is his little round dark eyes being so childlike, his skin being so pink and papery from being hidden away from the world. I regard that as the work of a truly great performer. Michael McKean We had never heard of Peter Sellers in the US until a flurry in the early 60s. All of a sudden we had Tom Thumb, The Mouse That Roared, The Naked Truth, Two Way Stretch and I'm All Right Jack, which I didn't quite understand because, at 12, I wasn't a union member. He was just a brilliant actor and, of course, in The Mouse That Roared he played three really distinct characters. I found the whole thing thrilling. And then I had a friend who said, 'Hey, have you ever heard of The Goon Show?' I think they were on WQXR and, my God, it was like a curtain had been drawn back. It was very well crafted anarchy and lunacy. And later he was so brilliant in Lolita and Dr Strangelove; there was a kind of an anarchic quality to what he was doing, but it was never out of control. It was being done by an artist, clearly, and not a clown. I was aware that a lot of the people who made me laugh or who thrilled me as actors were British; Alec Guinness, Stan Laurel and Boris Karloff. So anyway, I had my eyes wide open for good stuff, no matter who was purveying it. I must have seen Dr Strangelove a dozen times and in one viewing I just concentrated on Sellers and watched the small work he was doing as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. What I love about his work is the little stuff. I didn't really hear about his private life until well afterwards. And still it is, to me, less interesting than his work. I remember reading Being There and then two years later seeing the film and I'm thinking: he gets this character better than the writer Jerzy Kosinski did. Sellers took this character and made his simplicity so complicated. I think that's what's so great about that performance. He was never a stick figure, and he was never just there for the comedy. Paul Merton I was slightly too young for The Goons when they were being broadcast, so the biggest impact on me was the 50th anniversary Last Goon Show of All in 1972, which was released as an LP. I was so knocked out by the sheer exuberance and the talent, and I used to listen to the records and practice until I could do the same impressions. I just loved the sort of films Sellers was in, things like I'm All Right Jack and The Wrong Arm of the Law, which is absolutely astonishing. So I became a bit of a Peter Sellers obsessive. My favourite film of his is one that's quite obscure, The Magic Christian, which is normally mentioned as 'other disappointments'. But what other film has both Michael Aspel and Roman Polanski in it? The thing about Sellers is that he made more bad films than any other major star. You can look at his career in simplistic terms as being before the heart attack and after. He had the good fortune to be living half an hour from the planet's best heart hospital in Los Angeles, otherwise we would have been talking about him in the same breath as someone like James Dean. Graham Stark, who knew Sellers longer than most people, said that after the heart attack, he became a completely different person. The string of films he made in Britain have all got merit, but things got awkward after he went to Hollywood. In the UK, he was a big fish in a small pond, and he could bend people to his will, but he couldn't do that in Hollywood. One of the reasons he never won an Oscar was that he just really upset people in the US. He was nominated for Dr Strangelove but he lost to Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady; what a kick in the teeth that must have been. He'd made so many enemies in Hollywood at that point. He wasn't kissing anybody's arse. In the past three years, I've been watching his films in sequence, and Being There comes as like a great beacon of joy towards the end of a miserable run of movies. It shows that he hadn't lost his talent, he had just been in so many awful films. On Being There, he didn't have any arguments with anybody, he admired the director, Hal Ashby, there were no tantrums. It was clearly a film that he wanted to do and that one still stands up, particularly in the age of Trump, where somebody can be misunderstood as a potential presidential candidate. Stephen Wight Peter Sellers was a chameleon, one I learned a lot about playing his role in the original stage production of The Ladykillers. These days we associate physical transformation with huge weight loss or gain. Getting ripped for a role so our performer can be an action hero. Sellers saw physical transformation beyond the 'outer' and embodied his choices with wondrous results. Some were subtle, some were extreme, but always believable and real. In The Pink Panther Strikes Again there is this wonderful taut and uptight nature to Clouseau which creates a tension and fragility that provides such a glorious platform from the comedy to spring from or break into. The juxtaposition of his arrogant, savoir faire vocal performance paired with the chaotic and clownish physicality of character is amazing. His mastery of 'playing it straight' yet just on the edge of complete absurdism is nothing short of genius. The scene in which he arrives at the house to interrogate the staff is theatrical farce at its best captured on film. Sellers is like a dancer waltzing between characters and objects, like a musician nailing every beat and flowing with the rhythm of it all. The scene crackles with a sense of everyone on the verge of corpsing. He was funny as hell and made it look effortless. Sellers achieved something every actor strives for but thinks probably doesn't exist … perfection. A Peter Sellers season runs at the BFI Southbank, London, from 2-30 August, and Two Way Stretch and Heavens Above are released on 4 August on Blu-ray
