David Walliams and Miranda Hart (pictured in 2016) have parted ways after the actress quit King Bert Productions
They are two of the biggest names in comedy who joined forces to make some serious money through their own TV production company.
But now David Walliams and Miranda Hart have parted ways after she quit the firm they set up together five years ago.
Ms Hart’s exit from King Bert Productions marks an end not only to their commercial partnership but also perhaps their once-close friendship.
The two had been on such good terms that she even helped to feed Walliams during his charity swim along the Thames in 2011.
They also appeared together in the TV adaptation of Walliams’s children’s book Gangsta Granny.
But now it appears their friendship has cooled.
They launched King Bert amid huge fanfare in 2014 to make programmes to sell around the world with a third partner, Jo Sargent, a former BBC producer who worked on French and Saunders, Absolutely Fabulous and Hart’s sitcom Miranda.
The firm’s roster of programmes has included the BBC1 comedy Big School with Walliams, and adaptations of his children’s books, including The Boy In The Dress.
Ms Hart’s shows for King Bert included All Gardens Great And Small for More 4, in which she co-starred with her mother, Dee Hart Dyke, an amateur gardener.
The pair (seen in 2011) launched King Bert amid huge fanfare in 2014 to make programmes to sell around the world
Her resignation earlier this year came before accounts showed that King Bert was worth £1 million less at the end of 2018 than it was the year before, with its gross assets down from £2.2 million to just over £1 million.
King Bert, which had previously made Ms Hart’s Christmas specials, has no involvement with her forthcoming festive programme, which she filmed last Monday at London’s Palladium theatre.
One source said: ‘They say never to go into business with your friends or family as things get tense and fraught.
‘David and Miranda were exceptionally close at the beginning of this, now they are working very much apart. Miranda and David love the behind-the-scenes work as much as they do the on-camera stuff, but it just wasn’t to be. Miranda has gone off to do her own thing.’
Last week it was revealed that Walliams, 48, has joined J. K. Rowling in the exclusive league of authors who have earned more than £100 million from their children’s novels.
The Britain’s Got Talent judge, whose new book, The Beast Of Buckingham Palace, came out yesterday, is thought to have made more than £17 million last year alone.
A spokesman for Mr Walliams declined to comment on King Bert last night. A spokesman for 46-year-old Ms Hart said: ‘In 2016 Miranda decided that she didn’t want to be a director of a company and instead wanted to focus more on writing and acting.’
