Paddy McGuinness has spoken about replacing Gregg Wallace on Inside the Factory, after the former host resigned amid a BBC probe into misconduct.

The Phoenix Nights star landed the job earlier this year, after leaving his BBC shows Top Gear and A Question of Sport. Since he was announced to take over from Gregg, the MasterChef star found himself embroiled in a saga in which various women claimed he had made them feel uncomfortable with his comments and jokes.

The 60-year-old announced he was quitting the show earlier in 2023 after controversy over “inappropriate” comments made to a female factory worker about her appearance. The incident, which happened while filming at a Nestlé factory in York, is said to have contributed to his decision to quit, although he also wants to spend more time with his three-year-old son Sid, who has autism.

Paddy’s first episode as new host of the show airs on Sunday night on the BBC and sees him visit the festive-sounding Saint Niklas in Belgium. He goes behind the scenes in a chocolate factory, where four million chocolate seashells are produced each day.

Gregg left Inside The Factory amid controversy around comments made to a female factory worker about her appearance ( 
Image:
BBC/Voltage TV)

Paddy shows viewers how hazelnuts are roasted with sugar to create the praline filling, before being pumped in to chocolate moulds. While he samples some of the sweet treats, his co-star Cherry Healy learns how the white chocolate in the Guylian seashells is created, and discovers there is a specific formula for perfect Christmas tree decoration. Elsewhere, historian Ruth Goodman explores the European origins of Santa Claus.

Paddy has revealed that working on the show was a kind of full-circle for him, with the next episode following his journey back to the Warburtons factory in Bolton where he worked at as a teen. Speaking to The Sun, he said: “I thought: ‘I got my heavy goods licence doing Top Gear, now I’m driving into the place I used to work at 30-odd years ago, hosting another show for the BBC.

“When I was that 16-year-old kid who used to walk to work with butties my mum had made me, who’d have thought all these years later, I’d have had all these amazing things go on in my life.” Paddy added: “It was one of those moments where I thought: ‘Bloody hell, life eh? It does have its twists and turns.’”

The series, which looks at the secrets of the machines that produce everyday products, is now a firm favourite with viewers. BBC specialist factual boss Jack Bootle said Paddy would bring “new energy” to the show. “Inside the Factory is one of the BBC’s best-loved factual brands. It deserves to have a big star at the helm,” he added. “I’m unbelievably excited that Paddy is putting on his white coat and rising to the challenge. He has a passion for production and engineering that’s impossible to fake.”