Katie Hopkins slams Graham Norton for ‘humiliating’ Sheridan Smith and Caroline Flack

Katie Hopkins has slammed Graham Norton for ‘humiliating’ Sheridan Smith and Caroline Flack to get “cheap laughs” at the BAFTA TV Awards.

Hopkins, 41, defended the stars in her Mail Online column as she criticised “BBC Gaymaster General” Norton for encouraging the audience to “point and laugh”.

Norton poked fun at Flack and Smith during his opening monologue, telling viewers there are “better odds for Anne Boleyn returning to the second series of Wolf Hall” than Flack returning to The X Factor.

On Smith’s alleged drunken appearance on stage in Funny Girl, which was later stopped mid-show by producers citing technical difficulties, he said: “We're all excited for a couple of drinks tonight. Or, as it's known in theatrical circles, a few glasses of ‘technical difficulties’.”

Criticising his gags, Hopkins said viewers were made to feel “uncomfortable watching two good women feel awkward whilst a man encouraged the crowd to point and laugh”.

She continued: “Caroline's been dumped from The X Factor. Sheridan had a slurring problem on stage. And Graham wanted us to laugh at their humiliation.”

Smith has not performed in Funny Girl for three consecutive nights following Norton’s comments and the online criticism from viewers who chided her for looking disappointed at not winning the Best Drama gong for The C-Word.

Hopkins said the actress has been “reduced to a wreck by a mean man's army of sniggering luvvies and bearded fools” and needs someone to aid and prevent her from using social media alone after she hit back at several online trolls after they questioned her professionalism.

“In these circumstances, being left alone with dark thoughts and a Twitter feed is as dangerous as leaving a kid with a lawnmower,” Hopkins said. “Something bad is bound to happen.”

Defending both stars she continued: “The common thread that links Sheridan and Caroline is not their success and the enjoyment people are taking from their fall. It is not the industry in which they work — ruthless, relentless, unreasonable and anything but routine.

“It is the fact that neither appears to have someone to help them keep their balance when they are feeling unsteady.”

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