James Whale confessed in his 2007 autobiography "Almost A Celebrity" that his loss of temper at technical faults and storming out of his own show was deliberately planned, and arranged around giving him a week's holiday.
"To this day, people who saw me walk out on my show have wondered why the series didn't fold that very Friday night. The answer is simple: the whole thing was a set-up. I never had technical problems with my earpiece. I never threw a spontaneous wobbler over bad equipment. It was all planned. Designed to get even more publicity for the show - and it worked like a charm. It was a fantastic publicity stunt.
In fact, it was originally meant to be a stunt on behalf of the army. They'd contacted the show and asked if they could kidnap and then 'rescue' me live on the air in order to get some publicity for themselves. Logistically, this wasn't possible. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity of some PR for the show, I instead staged what looked like a genuine walkout from my own programme.
It was planned under tight security. From the crew, only Graham (the director), the producer and one of the cameramen were in on it. The latter's involvement explains why the camera managed to follow me through the building and into the car park beyond without missing a shot. Sinitta, my guest that night, was also in the know: she smoothly took over presenting the show after I'd stormed out. Even now, it amazes me that no one in the industry who saw that programme suspected that it was a carefully contrived hoax. But the truth is, they were set up and it worked like a dream. The ratings for the next show were even higher. That was the kind of thing you could do with a show like ours."