TV show suspends Hardeep Singh Kohli after complaint

Britain’s busiest showbiz Sikh, Hardeep Singh Kohli, will be a little less ubiquitous during the next six months.

The comedian and TV and radio presenter has been suspended from BBC1’s The One Show after an incident involving a female researcher.

The woman did not make a formal complaint and Kohli said no-one had accused him of sexual harassment, but he has apologised unreservedly because he recognised that he had “stepped over the mark”.

The 39-year-old Glasgow-born father of two stepped out of line two months ago and producers of the weekday evening show reprimanded him when it was reported to them.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “He agreed to take some time away from the show to reflect on his behaviour. The leave of absence has been agreed to be six months.”

She said that the researcher had not made a formal complaint and she acknowledged that The One Show management took the issue extremely seriously.

Kohli works as a roving reporter for the show, which is hosted by Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley. His suspension does not apply to other BBC programmes.

Since being taken on as a BBC trainee in Scotland he has made a number of other appearances, most recently BBC1’s Famous, Rich and Homeless series, where he was one of five well-heeled people deposited among London’s street sleepers and life strugglers to see how they would cope.

Fellow experimenters were former tennis star Annabel Croft, journalist Rosie Boycott, one-time Coronation Street actor  Bruce Jones, and James Spencer Churchill, Marquess of Blandford.

Kohli has also directed a children’s TV programme, It’ll Never Work.