Sue Perkins 'touched inappropriately' by Orville the Duck on Light Lunch

Sue Perkins' co-host has claimed she was touched by puppet Orville the Duck as she spoke out against the "Naughty Nineties".The comedian and former Great British Bake Off host, 55, claimed the famous green bird got handsy with her.

Her best friend and co-star Mel Giedroyc, 57, spoke of the alleged incident on Channel 4 daytime show Light Lunch. They were hosting the programme together in 1997 when they saw that children's entertainer Keith Harris was invited on.

He turned up with the giant green duckling, who wore a nappy. Mel recalled: “We’re back in the Naughty Nineties - woof! Weren’t they naughty - they were a very naughty decade.

“The most memorable of all the lunches, we had three puppeteers with their puppets for lunch. We had Keith Harris with Orville, who got a bit naughty with Sue! Well, Orville did," she claimed on the Parenting Hell podcast.

She added: “Yes. Harris via Orville got a bit ‘Naughty Nineties.’” Fellow comedian and podcast host Rob Beckett asked: “He was nipping at the body?”

Mel replied: “Yes. There is a ruddy hand (in there)!” Josh Widdecombe added: “They’d get away with it by claiming it was a grey area," to which Mel agreed as she said: "Exactly!"

Keith, who died in 2015 aged 67, and the two other guests Roger de Courcey with Nookie Bear and Matthew Corbett with Sooty, were all allegedly captivated by Sue.

Mel claimed: “They were trying to get all over Perks’s grill, she was the honey trap, I was just the fly buzzing round the edge rather desperately. They bloomin’ loved Perks, all of them.”

Sue and Mel met while studying at Cambridge University, where they launched their long-standing career together.In the 1990s, the comedy duo wrote for BBC Radio 4 show Weekending and created sketches for French & Saunders.

They went on to host daytime shows Light Lunch and Late Lunch for Channel 4 between 1997 and 1998. Their series ended in 1999 and Mel insisted they have fond memories of Light Lunch.

Mel even revealed there was plenty going on off screen as she admitted to snogging a runner on the programme. She said it was a then-unknown Dermot O'Leary as he was working one of his very first TV jobs.

“There was a lot going down - it should have been called Heavy Lunch," she teased. Mel and Sue returned to screens years later as the hosts of Great British Bake Off.

They held the positions between 2010 and 2016 on the BBC. However, the pair quit in protest of the show's move to Channel 4 and would go on to host their short-lived chat show on ITV called Mel and Sue.

The pair confessed they were "shocked and saddened" to discover the news of Bake Off's move and explained they "made no secret" of their desire for the show to remain where it was.

The Mirror has contacted Channel 4 for comment.

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