David Walliams Power and Silence: ITVX Documentary Examines Allegations
An hour-long documentary about allegations against comedian and author David Walliams has been released on YouTube and ITVX. The film features accounts from women who describe encounters when they were teenagers, alongside archive footage of jokes about Walliams and underage girls.
David Walliams is the subject of an hour-long documentary released on YouTube and ITVX, examining allegations of sexual misconduct and accounts from women who say they encountered him as teenagers. The film, titled David Walliams: Power and Silence, combines their testimonies with archival footage.
The documentary accompanies reports on a three-year investigation by ITV and The Guardian into claims by multiple women about Walliams’ behavior over several decades. Walliams and his lawyers fought to keep the investigation’s results secret, but they have now been made public.
Women describe encounters as teenagers
Some of the women in the film ask to remain unidentified; others appear without disguises. They say they were 15, 17, 18 or 19 when they met Walliams. Several describe being offered attention, party invitations, show tickets or gifts before being steered toward sexual situations they did not expect or feel able to refuse.
The women cite their youth, isolation and Walliams’ celebrity status as factors in those encounters. Some also describe other vulnerabilities, including time in care or previous sexual abuse.
One woman, identified as Alex, says she was 15 when she met Walliams, then 32, at a signing after a Little Britain show. She and her mother met him, and Alex gave him sketches and a letter with her phone number. He called, and they spoke for an hour.
“I was just, like, full of hope and excitement,” Alex says in the film.
Another woman, identified as Jade, says she was 15 when she met Walliams, then 36. She agreed to go to his house because, she says, “I didn’t think he would want sex. Especially that quickly.” She says he told her they would wait until she was 16 and asked her to stay in touch. She did not.
Archive footage revisits public jokes
The film sets those accounts against old television footage. At the British Comedy Awards in 2004, presenter Jonathan Ross joked about Walliams and 15-year-olds: “Like all 15-year-olds, it’s drunk, it’s unpredictable and it’s probably going home with David Walliams.”
Comedian Alan Carr later compared Walliams’ approach to women to “an illegal taxi driver – you lure them in to a false sense of security and then you pounce”.
The women also describe how familiarity with a celebrity could encourage trust, particularly for young people with little experience of the world. The documentary points to Walliams’ public image as an encouraging judge on Britain’s Got Talent.
Walliams denies all the allegations. He has been described as “mortified” and “devastated” by the women’s accounts.
