The BBC has said Chris Evans will continue to broadcast his Radio 2 breakfast show as usual after reports that he may face questioning by police over historical sex assault allegations.



The presenter could be quizzed by officers from London’s Metropolitan police in the next few days, according to a Sunday newspaper report.

It is understood to relate to allegations made by a former work colleague about Evans’ behaviour in the 1990s that first surfaced in the Sun in May this year.

Evans has denied the claims and previously described the reports as a “witch hunt” and said allegations of bullying were “ridiculous”.

In a statement, the Met police said a complaint of “non-recent sexual assault” had been made by a woman against a man dating back to the 1990s. But it did not name Evans.

“An allegation of non-recent sexual assault was made to police on Monday, 23 May,” said the force in a statement.

“The allegation was made by a woman against a man. It relates to incidents in Tower Hamlets in the 1990s.

“There has been no arrest and no person has been interviewed under caution. Enquiries continue.”

Channel 4’s Big Breakfast, which was co-presented by Evans, was filmed in the Tower Hamlets borough of London in the 1990s.

It is thought neither Evans nor the BBC has been directly contacted by police in relation to the complaint.



Evans’ first series as the new face of BBC2’s Top Gear came to the end on Sunday with a record ratings low. The show has failed to match the presenter’s own ratings expectations and was met with a generally poor response from critics.

Evans is about to take a scheduled holiday from his Radio 2 breakfast show, beginning next week. Filming on the second series of Top Gear is due to begin in September.

The BBC said Evans was presenting his Radio 2 breakfast show as usual. The Met police and representatives of Evans declined to comment.

Speaking before the launch of the new series in May, Evans described press hostility towards him as a “perfect storm”.

“Some of – almost all – of the observations from certain aspects of the press have been so nonsensical and so facile and fictitious … All the people they were talking about in lots of the stories know the truth,” he said.

“I think they were looking for a bite and the one thing you do is don’t bite. You never defend yourself because that’s always going to be misconstrued. You hope maybe that other people defend you perhaps but the best way to respond to it all is to know you’ve done nothing wrong.”

In April the BBC took the unusual step of accusing the Sun of printing “unfounded nonsense about Chris on a weekly, sometimes daily basis”.