Jonathan Creek actor Alan Davies may be sued over Lord McAlpine tweet

The Jonathan Creek and QI star Alan Davies is among thousands of Twitter users who could be sued by Lord McAlpine for tweeting false child abuse allegations about the Tory peer.

Lord McAlpine announced last week that he would pursue libel action against internet users who falsely branded him a paedophile after the BBC Newsnight broadcast.

His lawyers have hired a team of experts to collate all the tweets published during the controversy.

They are reported to have found 1,000 "original" offensive tweets and a further 9,000 retweets.

The Speaker's wife, Sally Bercow, and the Guardian columnist George Monboit are also on the list of offenders that is so long that it could potentially lead to the largest number of defendants in British legal history.

Davies asked his 440,000 followers: "Any clues as to who this Tory paedophile is...?" before retweeting a response from a user called ToniKZ naming Lord McAlpine.