Alan Davies apologises for false abuse allegation

Comedian Alan Davies has apologised to Lord McAlpine for naming him in relation to false allegations about abuse at a children's home. The former Tory politician's legal team is in the process of suing everybody who wrongly linked him to allegations of historic child abuse. The claims were sparked by a Newsnight report which did not name Lord McAlpine, but referred to a senior Conservative from the Thatcher era, leading to his identification online. Last week the BBC agreed to pay the peer £185,000 for wrongly implicating him in a paedophile ring that targeted children at the care home in Wrexham. But Twitter users had already taken to the social network site to tweet or retweet the libellous allegations. Davies, star of BBC Two's QI, told his 444,000-plus followers on Twitter: "I've just written to Lord McAlpine to apologise for retweeting his name in relation to false allegations following a BBC investigation." Lord McAlpine's legal representative told Channel 4 News that Davies' apology was slow in arriving. Sally Bercow, the outspoken wife of Commons Speaker John Bercow, is another Twitter user who Lord McAlpine's lawyers are considering suing. Bercow wrote on November 4: "Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*." She has defended her tweet describing it as not libellous - "just foolish". The peer's solicitor, Andrew Reid, has said action will be taken against 'a lot of people' who linked the former politician's name with the unfounded allegations.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.