David Walliams delivers savage dig at Simon Cowell after Britain’s Got Talent axe

David Walliams has taken aim at Simon Cowell a year after he was axed from Britain’s Got Talent.

After a decade as one of the judges on the ITV reality talent show, David was fired and replaced by Bruno Tonioli when leaked recordings revealed he’d made scathing remarks about contestants.

The comedian, 53, apologised for his offensive comments but then took production company FremantleMedia to court, suing them for ‘significant damages’.

He eventually reached a settlement, reported to be around £5 million, but has remained tight-lipped about the fallout since then.

In a Q&A segment with young fans, David was asked by a boy called Jasper if ‘any of the characters in your books based on real people?’

‘That is a good question. Whenever I’m trying to think of an evil villain I always think “what would Simon Cowell do?”’ he quipped, leaving hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley bursting out in laughter.

David then went on to explain how a Britain’s Got Talent contestant called Cockroach Ken also inspired a character in a previous book.

He then told kids to ‘keep their eyes and ears open as you never know when you might have a good idea for a story’.

Earlier this year David was questioned about his controversial exit from BGT.

David was axed from the ITV talent series after a decade last year (Picture: Dymond/ Thames/ Syco/ Rex/ Shutterstock)

He previously dodged questions about leaving the show (Picture: Dymond/ Thames/ Syco/ Rex/ Shutterstock)

During an appearance on Lorraine, he was asked by host Lorraine Kelly if he’d been watching the latest season of BGT and whether he was ‘sorry’ about how he left.

After looking briefly surprised by the question he responded: ‘I’ve been travelling a lot, so I haven’t had a chance to see it.’

He then went on to say he’s been enjoying all the extra time he’d had to be creative and continued to talk about his writing pursuits and other upcoming projects.’

Although his response made it clear he wasn’t ready to discuss the matter, some fans said his response was ‘diplomatic’ while others labelled him ‘bitter’.

After the case was settled late last year, Fremantle said it was ‘sincerely sorry’ that his ‘private conversations’ were published.