James Corden “most difficult obnoxious presenter,” claims TV director

A TV director has branded James Corden as the “most difficult and obnoxious presenter” he has ever worked with.

Craig Duncan – who worked with the comic in 2013 – took to YouTube to share his experience of working with Corden on the set of the TV series A League Of Their Own.

As detailed in the video, Duncan was tasked with directing Corden, as well as Freddie Flintoff, Jamie Redknapp and Jack Whitehall, for an episode of the show – filming a Masterchef-style challenge outside of the studio.

“The most difficult and obnoxious presenter I have ever worked with was James Corden,” he said at the beginning of the video. “I was asked by his production company [if] would I be willing to direct a challenge that was gonna be part of their A League of Their Own show. It was season seven, episode three, and I’ll never forget it.”

He continued: “They said, ‘How are you at working with difficult presenters?’ I say, ‘Oh right, OK. Well, I’ve filmed the Three Tenors before, and you can’t get more of a prima donna than an opera singer.’”

Duncan explained that he was later asked to come in and see a rehearsal of the show to become more familiar with the host’s style. “It came to a point where he had to read from a card,” Duncan recalled, describing what Corden was like during the run-through.

“[There was] kind of a joke in there, and he just looked at it like, ‘That’s not funny, that’s not funny. It’s shit. We have to rewrite that’.”

Assuming Corden was having a bad day at the time, he agreed to film the upcoming segment. However, he later described the tense atmosphere on set, and explained that the team had just five minutes to get the shot they needed.

“We were working it out,” Duncan explained. “When old bugger-lugs pipes up.”

“[He said,] ‘What the fuck is going on here? It’s obvious what you do. It’s so obvious how you shoot it, you’re stupid.’ And I’m like, ‘He’s absolutely right guys, let’s do that, that’s the best thing to do… We know what we’re doing, right?”

He continued, adding that, instead of taking five minutes to get the shot, Corden ended up being 45 minutes late back to the studio.

The former Gavin & Stacey star and host of US chat show The Late Late Show has faced controversy in recent months over his behaviour. Back in December, Mel B claimed that he was one of the “biggest dickhead celebrities” she has ever met.

She made the comments during an appearance on Channel 4’s The Big Narstie Show, saying: “I think you always have to be nice to the people that you work with whether it be production, camera guys, sound, lighting… and he hasn’t been very nice.”

This also followed the comic being temporarily banned from a restaurant in New York after accusations of being “abusive” to staff members.

Corden later addressed the incident on The Late Late Show, saying: “Because I didn’t shout or scream, I didn’t get up out of my seat, I didn’t call anyone names or use derogatory language, I’ve been walking around thinking that I haven’t done anything wrong.

“But the truth is I have made a rude, rude comment. And it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment, it was ungracious to the server.”

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