A TV actor who claimed he was unfairly sacked from a children's show had his allegations dismissed at an employment tribunal, but was awarded £2,000 for verbal abuse. Isaac Blake, 28, had told the Birmingham hearing he was unfairly dismissed from the programme, shown on CBBC, after complaining about a faulty animatronic suit and verbal abuse. He also alleged he was victimised by the company after his complaints. Blake, from Cardiff, played a Tombliboo in the programme, made by Ragdoll Limited. Earlier he broke down as he told the tribunal that when his contract with the company was terminated in summer 2006 he felt 'like the oxygen went out of my mouth'. He said he gained weight and entered a 'depressive state'. However, the tribunal ruled Blake had been sacked because of his conduct, not because of complaints he'd made to producers about his animatronic suit and verbal abuse. The panel also dismissed the victimisation claims and his assertion that he was an employee of Ragdoll Limited, ruling instead that he was working for them as a self-employed contractor. Blake told the tribunal he was called 'faggot' and 'bitch' by a colleague. He was awarded compensation of £2,000 by the panel, who accepted that another cast member had called him a 'faggot' on two separate occasions. Speaking after the ruling, Marcus Difelice, representing the production company, said: "We are very happy with the outcome. "We had always accepted that another cast member had used the word faggot and we had spoken to her about that. We had asked her to watch her language and told her that was unacceptable."
