James Corden blasted by director as ‘most difficult and obnoxious presenter’

6 April 2023

James Corden has been blasted as the “most difficult and obnoxious presenter” by a director who says he struggled to work with him on sports quiz ‘A League of Their Own’.

James Corden has been blasted as the ‘most difficult and obnoxious presenter’ by a director who says he struggled to work with him on sports quiz ‘A League of Their Own’

The departing ‘Late Late Show’ host, 44, was also branded sweary, abusive and late by producer Craig Duncan, who directed a skit on episode of the comedy panel show, which James fronted from 2010 to 2019.

Craig, who was tasked with directing a pre-recorded ‘Masterchef’-type segment for the show, which also featured Jack Whitehall, Freddie Flintoff and Jamie Redknapp, said on his YouTube channel Fludded: “The most difficult and obnoxious presenter I've ever worked with is James Corden.

“They (‘A League of Their Own bosses) said, ‘How are you at working with difficult presenters?’

“I say, ‘Oh right, ok. Well, I’ve filmed the Three Tenors before, and you can’t get more of a prima donna than an opera singer.’

But Craig said he got wound up by James asking for what he called a “s***” jokes on his presenting cards to be rewritten as he didn’t want to read it.

He added: “It came to a point where he had to read from a card. It was kind of a joke in there, and he just looked at it like, ‘That’s not funny, that’s not funny. It’s s***, we have to rewrite that.’

“I don’t know – maybe he was having a bad day or the writing’s not up to scratch, but I definitely thought, ‘Man, somebody wrote that, not nice to do that.’

“But television isn't for the faint-hearted and sometimes you have to take those knocks on the chin.”

Craig stressed that while the other panellists on the show were easy-going and friendly there was a “anxiety” on set as people were aware of the time.

He said he was working with the crew to try and figure out how to keep everyone from hanging around too long, but James “piped up” and “treaded all over his toes”.

The director added: “We were working it out, when old b*****lugs pipes up: ‘What the f*** is going on here? It’s obvious what you do – you put a camera there, you put a camera there – it’s so obvious how you shoot it, you’re stupid.’”

He also accused the host of being 45 minutes late back to the studio after the exchange, and concluded: “I hope I never, ever work with (James) again.”

James was last year accused of “stealing” one of Ricky Gervais’ jokes and apologised to the owner of Balthazar restaurant in New York for allegedly verbally abusing its staff when his wife Julia Carey, 43, got an egg-yolk omelette containing egg-white.

He was branded a “tiny cretin of a man” and banned by owner Keith McNally, 71, before he lifted his ban on James once he said sorry for his behaviour.

James also apologised to Ricky, 61, for “inadvertently” using one of his 2018 routines on ‘The Late Late Show’, which he is due to quit hosting this month.