Kelly gets Frank over ordeal

Matthew Kelly tackles comic Frank Skinner in a TV interview tonight after the funnyman poked fun at his arrest over a sex abuse allegation.

The actor, who was cleared in a police investigation, has his head in his hands as he discusses his ordeal openly on ITV1's The Frank Skinner Show.

And Kelly puts the show host on the defensive by taking issue with comments he made in an edition of Baddiel And Skinner Unplanned earlier in the year.

"What he does is open up a debate about the ethics of making people the focus of jokes in topical comedy," said a spokesman for tonight's show.

"Frank is pulled up for what he said, but he lets him talk and open up about what he has gone through."

The programme was recorded yesterday but is still being edited.

Kelly was arrested in Birmingham in January over an allegation of sexual abuse in the 1970s, as he came offstage from a panto production.

But the following month he was cleared by Surrey Police of the allegation which he had strenuously denied.

Discussing the circumstances of his arrest, Kelly tells Skinner: "I have been told I will never find out what happened. But I'd like to. It would help me a lot."

And he speaks of his worry about the impact he thought the investigation would have on his career.

"The most important thing in your life is your name. And if you don't have a name, you don't have anything. And that was the thing that was most frightening," Kelly said.

Former Hear'Say singer Myleene Klass was reduced to tears on a previous edition of Skinner's show as she recalled how she had been verbally abused in the street.