Craig David's bitter feud with Keith Lemon which sparked vow to 'knock him out'

Award-winning singer-songwriter Craig David has been known for his amazing musical talent since he first rose to fame in 1999.

Featuring on the classic garage single Rewind by Artful Dodger, Craig quickly catapulted to stardom and went on to release his debut studio album, Born to Do It in the year 2000.

The star’s success and popularity continued to grow strong, gaining him several loyal supporters throughout the course of his career.

However, during the height of his fame and popularity things took an unexpected turn for the star when comedian Keith Lemon, whose real name is Leigh Francis, impersonated him during his comedy show Bo Selecta.

What came to follow was years of parody sketches and a bitter feud between the singer and the Celebrity Juice host.

Daily Star has taken a detailed look into what happened between the famous pair.

The rise of Bo Selecta

In 2002, Leigh Francis’ show Bo Selecta debuted on Channel 4.

The programme mainly focused on Keith’s central character Avid Merrion, who was a dangerously insane stalker obsessed with celebrities.

The show also consisted of sketches featuring caricatures of well-known British and American celebrities, portrayed by Leigh who wore large latex facemasks with exaggerated facial features.

Some of the celebs Leigh would characterise were Mel B, Elton John, Trisha Goddard and focal character Craig David, who he portrayed as an egotistical Yorkshireman who owned a plastic peregrine falcon named Kes, which was also reference to the 1969 film of the same name.

Bo Selecta had 5 series in total and ran until 2009.

How Craig David was portrayed

Although Leigh was responsible for mocking a number of celebs on the show, it appeared as though Fill Me In singer Craig was his main target.

During the programme, Leigh illustrated David’s life story which included him being forced to wear a urostomy bag, as well as trying to break into the American music charts but travelled to Mallorca by accident instead.

The character’s story continued with a fall from grace and popularity, showing David working in a call centre after losing his fame.

Despite the constant jibes on the show, comedian Leigh insisted the character was not based on Craig David himself, which was of course, very difficult to believe at the time.

Craig David slams show

As the Channel 4 programme gained more popularity and attention from viewers, singer turned DJ Craig became increasingly frustrated with the character portrayal which led him to speak out about it.

Discussing the character with The Sunday Times in 2007, the singer said: “Inside it was absolutely pissing me off and hurtful beyond belief.

“There were times when I thought, ‘I just want to knock this guy out.'”

Despite this, Craig did make an appearance on the show as himself, which he later said he regretted.

He added: “I didn’t want people to think, ‘Craig’s reacting to it,’ because then they would think, ‘How can we get up Craig’s nose even more?’ So, I did it, but I wasn’t happy about it.”

Craig also admitted that the show affected his career and he wasn’t able to release music the way he wanted to.

Talking to iNews he explained: “It actually wasn’t [the show] itself which was the lowest point for me. It was not being able to put music out in the way I always wanted to.”

“This is one of the beautiful things with hindsight; sometimes you just weren’t ready for something.”

However, during an in an interview with Q, David said he “didn’t really care” about being the centreof the comedian’s attention, instead saying: “He could have eased off but had that character not happened, I might still be meandering along.”

Resolved dispute

In 2017, Leigh seemed to confirm that his feud with Craig had come to an end.

While appearing as his most famous alter ego Keith Lemon on ITV2’s Celebrity Juice, Leigh mentioned that he would love if Craig came on as a guest panellist on the show.

He confessed: “It would be good, wouldn’t it? I think it would put a lot of things to rest, publicly and we’ll have just a great time.”

Fearne Cotton, who was a panellist on the show at the time, said she believed the two men had worked things out during her wedding to Jesse Wood in 2014, which Leigh also confirmed.

He said: “Yeah we hugged it out and said it was all banter and stuff. I said, ‘Hey it wasn’t even me, it was that other guy Avid Merrion.'”

Craig alsoo confirmed that they had hugged and made up in an interview with iNews.

He expressed: “A short time ago at Fearne Cotton’s wedding [in 2014], we had a big hug-out in the middle of it.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to give you a big hug, man.’ At the end of the day, I haven’t got it inside me to hold on to anything, how people may want me to feel.”

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk