Greg James apologises for ‘ableist’ remark about classic Roald Dahl character

The Royal National Institute of Blind People were among those to criticise James and Chris Smith for their blunder

Greg James has issued an apology after he and Chris Smith made an “ableist” comment about Mrs Twit’s glass eye in a promotional video for their new Roald Dahl spin-off book.

The pair have written The Twits Next Door as part of a new book series commissioned by the Roald Dahl Story Company inspired by the late author’s original works.

Radio 1 DJ James and ex-BBC newsreader Smith also co-write the Kid Normal book series.

In a now-deleted promotional video shared by Puffin Books on Twitter/X, the duo suggest ways of making The Twits more disgusting. Illustrator Emily Jones suggests a glass eye, to which Smith replies: “That’s it. What a disgusting pair of Twits!”

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIBP) was among those to criticise the video, responding on X: “When there’s positive representation of disabilities in children’s books, children with disabilities feel seen and heard, and their friends and classmates treat everyone the same. There is nothing at all revolting about prosthetic eyes, we think they’re brilliant.”

Charity Scope posted on X: “Positive disability representation in kid’s books help improve attitudes and inclusion. So what can we expect of negative representation like this?”

They also posted a video saying: “Greg and Chris, we know you can do better. The disabled community wants to help you get there.”

Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, who is also a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, posted: “Thanks. Thanks very much. #sarcasm. I’d hoped the world had moved on.”

The backlash prompted a statement from James on Friday (5 April) afternoon. The DJ shared on X: “Hello! Regarding our new Twits story announcement video from this morning: We are so sorry to have caused offence with the launch video. It was absolutely not our intention.

“And we apologise unreservedly. It’s now gone. We understand that words matter and we pride ourselves on championing and welcoming everyone into the magical world of children’s books. We would never dream of deliberately setting out to exclude anyone.

“With the glass eye comment, we were attempting to pay homage to one of the Twit’s most famous pranks involving a glass of beer in order to remind people of Dahl’s infamous terrible two. It’s in no way a suggestion that this forms any part of the plot of the new story nor was it our intention to suggest that it was in any way disgusting.”

Greg James and Chris Smith have teamed up to write ‘The Twits Next Door’, an adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic novel ‘The Twits’ ((Alamy/PA))

James added: “It’s unfortunate that the word disgusting appears to be a direct comment on that. That’s an error on our part. We are devastated that it’s come across like this but completely understand why there is anger. And we appreciate everyone rightly calling it out.

“We hear that fully, we’re so upset that we made a mistake but we’re still incredibly proud of this book and we’re excited to get out there and share it with young readers all over the world x”

The Twits Next Door will see The Twits attempting to drive away their “horribly nice” new neighbours: the Lovelies. It will be published in August.

TV presenter Konnie Huq, The Last Leg comedian Adam Hills and author Adam Kay are also set to contribute to a short story collection, Charlie and the Christmas Factory.

The spin-off series comes after Netflix purchased the rights to the complete works of Dahl in 2021.

Last year, Puffin was the subject of controversy after an investigation by The Telegraph found that Dahl’s children’s books were being rewritten to remove language considered offensive.

The word “fat”, for example, was removed from every book.

The decision faced criticism from authors including Salman Rushdie, who called it “absurd”, while Sir Philip Pullman suggested it would be better to let the books go out of print.