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Who Wants To Be A Millionaire under fire as Jeremy Clarkson mentions comedian Sean Lock

The late comedian tragically passed away in August

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire viewers have slammed the show after airing a joke about late comedian Sean Lock.

During last night’s celebrity edition (November 17), Jimmy Carr, Christine Ohuruogu and Alex Beresford competed for their chosen charities.

The trio were asked a series of questions by host Jeremy Clarkson.

Jeremy Clarkson talking to Jimmy Carr on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire came under fire last night (Credit: ITV)

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

The moment happened during Jimmy’s time in the hot seat.

When running through the lifelines, Jeremy explained: “You got two Phone a Friends because there’s no audience, because of COVID.”

Jimmy poked fun: “Oh, I thought that was just because people preferred [Chris] Tarrant.”

Read more: Jeremy Clarkson health scare forced him to give up smoking after 43-year habit

As the crew gasped, the comedian added: “What?”

Jeremy went on to mention the late comedian.

He said: “That was because they were promised Sean Lock!”

Sean Lock
Sean passed away following a battle with lung cancer (Credit: ITV)

Read more: Jeremy Clarkson discovers connection to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? contestant

It comes months after Sean’s tragic death in August.

The 58-year-old comedian passed away following a battle with lung cancer.

However, viewers of the ITV programme were far from impressed with the gag.

ITV viewers slam show

Some took to Twitter to voice their complaints, with one saying: “Very poorly timed joke about the late Sean Lock on @MillionaireUK just now. Clearly filmed before he passed but could have been cut out of the edit surely.”

A second tweeted: “Jeremy Clarkson mentioning Sean Lock should have been edited out #WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire.”

Another added: “I suspect some people are going to ask why that Sean Lock gag wasn’t edited out. I suspect this was filmed before his death but still… #WhoWantstoBeaMillionaire.”

In addition, a fourth wrote: “Was that really a Sean Lock gag on #WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire ? Bit too soon.”

A fifth commented: “If filmed before Sean Lock’s passing then it was a playful wisecrack at Jimmy’s expense and the blame lies with ITV for not editing it out. Obviously, if filmed after his death it’s incredibly bad taste.”

Another complained: “Wow nobody thought it appropriate to edit out the Sean Lock comment.”

Should have been edited out!

However, one tweeted: “Sean Lock was a comedian and a brilliant one at that. He would have found the @JeremyClarkson joke on #WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire absolutely brilliant.

“Think about it that way. Sean Lock would applaud it.”

Another defended the joke, saying: “I’m sure Sean would have found it funny.”

ED! has approached ITV for comment.

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor