Comedian Joe Lycett says he staged TV walkout as a plastics protest

Lycett said his fake tantrum had achieved a "clean sweep" of press and social media attention

Comedian Joe Lycett has revealed his walkout on live TV on Thursday was a planned stunt to trick the media and raise awareness of single-use plastics.

Lycett appeared to storm off Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4 after host Steph McGovern showed a photo of him with a type of plastic bottle that he's campaigning against.

"I didn't realise I was on Newsnight," he said before departing the studio.

But on Friday, Lycett confirmed it had been a hoax to spark "press interest".

A number of newspapers and other media outlets duly covered his walkout before he revealed it had been pre-planned.

Returning to the show on Friday, he explained: "I decided that I wanted as many people to know about this story as possible - and how do you get press interest? Well, we have seen Piers Morgan, we have seen Patsy Palmer - you storm off a chat show.

"And so that is what we went for yesterday."

In his original appearance, Lycett talked about how his own TV show was looking into whether white and coloured PET plastic bottles were harder to recycle than clear PET plastic.

On Friday, he said his fake tantrum had been an attempt to stop companies from using coloured PET plastics, and had achieved a "clean sweep" of press and social media attention.

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The comic, who has hosted a number of stunts as part of his consumer show Got Your Back, joked that both he and McGovern deserved Oscars for their performances, having kept the stunt quiet from most of the production crew.

Prior to his second appearance, he posted a statement calling for drink company Yop to stop using white plastics.

"All of it was planned, all of it rehearsed," he wrote. "I seeded pictures of me drinking from one of these bottles which Greg James agreed to retweet. The tabloids loved it."

"I risked my reputation as a jolly, affable and very-much-available chat show guest to say this as loud as I can: Yop, it's time to stop using white PET plastic."

Yop manufacturer General Mills has been asked for comment.

Last March, Lycett legally changed his name to that of German clothing designer Hugo Boss after the brand used trademark claims to target small businesses and charities who used "boss" in their branding. He changed his name back a month later.