TRIGGER Happy TV star Dom Joly has something of fractious relationship with Weston-super-Mare.

In 2008, the television and radio personality made some disparaging comments about the Somerset town after a week of filming – including calling it a “s***hole” – earning himself a ban from the then-mayor.

He has since returned, performing a number of shows in Weston.

But, during an appearance on the Have a Word podcast, the comedian has spoken about the consequences of his words and, in typical fashion, did not hold back.

His remarks are sure to reignite the star’s love-hate relationship with the Somerset resort town.

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When asked about his ban on the podcast, he said: “Yeah, I’m banned from Weston-super-Mare. I filmed there for a week and I wrote that it was a bit of a s***hole, because it is a s***hole, and I got a letter from the mayor of Weston-Super-Mare – who I presume is the Weston-super-Mare mayor.

“And he sent me, on official notepaper, a thing saying, and I remember it because it’s framed in my loo, saying, ‘For the rest of your natural life, you are banned from Weston-super-Mare’.

“And I remember thinking, ‘Who gives a s***, I’m never going back there?’.

“And then, two months later, someone says, ‘It’s kicking off in Weston-super-Mare, you need to check this’.”

He then went on to describe how he watched a video from a fundraising day – featuring the mayor – at which he played a prominent role.

The 57-year-old, who lives in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, went on: “The whole thing is a Dom Joly hate day. He’s got a slug race where all the slugs are named after me, they’ve built a really realistic effigy of me on a pyre, and a guy sets light to it and a bunch of Weston-super-Maries are all dancing around it.

“It’s like The Wicker Man there.”

When the hosts put it to Joly that he could return as a ghost, as the mayor’s ban only applied during his ‘natural life’, he replied: “I’ve got better things to do when I’m dead. I’m not going to Weston-super-Mare.

“If you’re living in Weston-super-Mare, you’re dead already.”

Weston-super-Mare High Street. Picture: Paul Blakemore/North Somerset Council

Clearly, the comments have reignited the hot fury in Weston, with folks taking to social media to voice their opinion on the comedian’s thoughts – with some actually agreeing.

One wrote: “Can’t stand the bloke anyway! Nothing wrong with Weston, much worse places to live!”

While another resident said: “It’s flipping lovely round here. All the countryside to explore and (within) easy reach of two of the best cities in the UK for entertainment. Most of the Weston residents seem nice as well.”
However, some spoke up in support of Joly, with one saying: “Dom Joly is absolutely right, Weston is one of the worst places in the UK.

“Every day, without fail, we hear police sirens, my misses is scared to go out on her own. It’s not a nice place.”

They went on: “The roads are falling to bits (but as long as we get the old pier back up and running that’s all that matters)”, adding: “You walk through the high street and you’ve got vape shop, sweet shop, Greggs, phone shop, vape shop, phone shop, another Greggs, vape shop.

“Anyone that comes here now would see all that and say, ‘Wow, what happened to that place? It used to be somewhere I came as a child but now it’s a dump’ – and that’s the truth.”