Leigh Francis has confirmed that he has filmed a reboot pilot episode for Bo’ Selecta! – 13 years after it was taken off air.

The original series famously sent Craig David into a spiraling depression after Francis portrayed the garage legend as an idiot with a colostomy bag (for some reason). Celebrities like David and Trisha Goddard called out Francis for his ‘racist’ impressions of them and the show’s use of blackface.

In a recent interview with The Times, David described Francis’s comedy as “bullying” and says it had a big impact on his life:

‘It felt like a vendetta and when it got a following, it became something that affected me. People would shout at me on the street and I felt the same feeling I had when I was bullied at school. Leigh Francis had normalised bullying by making it comedy.’

Francis has since apologised for the show’s use of blackface and for ridiculing Craig David, but David wasn’t having it:

‘We can all apologise when on the back foot. The moment of expressing his apology seemed very coincidentally timed. Has he reached out to any of the people he did on his show? He hasn’t reached out to me. Has he gone to communities to talk about bullying? Racism? And to be educated? You can only ask him.

All I’ve seen since his apology is people still tweeting him thinking Bo’ Selecta! is fun and the tone of his response being very much still, ‘I’m the funny guy here’. That he still plays it like a joke after his apology tells me everything.’

Rather than keep apologising to David and beg for his forgiveness, Francis has now told him to ‘move on’ from the whole thing and get over it, telling The Sun recently:

‘Most people are happy with their portrayal on Bo’ Selecta!. Apart from someone we know who wasn’t.

The only way it’s ever going to go away from him, if he feels people are going on about it, is to stop talking about it.

It’s ages ago, isn’t it? It is, 20 years ago. I wish he wasn’t upset.’

On the Bo’ Selecta! reboot and when we might see it on our screens:

‘Avid Merrion is wandering around somewhere. He’s a bit different though, he’s grown up.

The Bear was in the pilot too. I don’t know if he’ll stick around, it’s all in the hands of the TV Gods.’

I think Craig David can rest assured that his character won’t be making a return, but still, he’s probably quaking in his boots at news of Bo’ Selecta’s imminent return. As a few other celebrities will be too. Take it easy on them, Leigh!

For an insane thread of ‘celebrities you didn’t know were racist’, click HERE.