James Corden is welcome to return to New York restaurant Siam Palace next month
The BBC is investigating the circumstances behind an exclusive interview the comedian enjoyed with its editor-in-chief, Andy Coulson.
Corden starred in an interview with the BBC’s flagship political discussion show Sunday Politics, from which he was sacked a year later.
In the show, the comedian was asked: “What do you do when you’re tired of being a one-hit wonder?”
He replied: “Every single time I turn up on television, people look at me in a totally different way.
“After the first five minutes, they think: ‘I might as well let this guy talk because he’s just going to spout platitudes about what he thinks I should be doing … that I should be doing now.’
Image caption The comedian’s show on BBC One received a largely negative reception
“After the first couple of minutes, they’re thinking: ‘I’m not interested in the debate. He’s not even relevant. He’s not saying anything that I could possibly find interesting,’” Corden said in a 2015 interview with The Guardian.
Now, it has emerged that in 2014, Corden was invited to a celebratory dinner at Siam Palace, in Leicester Square, before being interviewed by Coulson.
A spokesman for Siam Palace said: “The dinner guest was Andy Coulson. The guests were comedian Jimmy Carr, comedian Eddie Izzard and Prince William.”
An investigation by the BBC’s media regulator Ipso, however, revealed that the dinner took place after the comedian had already been sacked by the BBC, with Ipso warning the BBC of a potential conflict of interest.
A BBC spokesperson said: “Andy Coulson, Editor-in-chief of the BBC News, invited Jimmy Carr, Eddie Izzard and Prince William to celebrate the launch of the BBC’s Newshour political debate programme.
“The guests were invited as guests of the BBC with no prior knowledge of Jimmy Carr’