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Danny Baker was overpowered by help from fans at his initial live show since being sacked from the BBC.
The BBC ended his agreement last Sunday, after he tweeted a highly contrasting image of a chimpanzee in a suit, with an insightfully dressed man and lady, subtitled ‘Royal baby leaves hospital’.
But on appearing on stage at the Nottingham Theatre Royal last night, fronting his stand-up show Good Time Charlie’s Back, he was received with a standing ovation from the audience.
“I genuinely didn’t know what the atmosphere would be like tonight. You wouldn’t believe how I was feeling 20 minutes ago but I’m so pleased so let’s do this,” Baker said, (via the Huffington Post).
Later in the show, he added: “I’ve never been a sentimental sort. But I’m numb with gratitude tonight, I caught my wife in the break and you reduced her to a pile of tears.
“I do want to say this and I’m not milking it but it’s been one of the best nights of my career tonight. It really has.”
Baker’s sacking came up at last night’s BAFTA TV Awards too, with host Graham Norton making reference to the headline-grabbing incident with a Great British Bake-Off gag.
“Every week after an error of judgement a baker gets kicked out,” he said. “This week it was Danny. Literally a showstopper.”
Baker apologised for the tweet soon after he posted it, telling fans: “Sorry my gag pic of the little fella in the posh outfit has whipped some up.
“Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased. Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations got in touch, down it came.”
In later messages, he accused the BBC of throwing him ‘under the bus’.
Some have stuck up for him, however. Comedian Dara Ó Briain said: “What? Danny Baker got fired? But he immediately apologised and deleted the tweet! I mean, literally, in the event of mistakenly causing offence, what else can you do? Genuinely amazed by that.
“Also amazed by how many thought that by posting this, I was excusing the original tweet. Of course I wasn’t.
“The Irish had a century of that monkey sh*t too, y’know (cf Punch magazine). Ultimately, though, I’d like that to hope if/when I f**k up, you might accept an apology…”
