DANNY Baker has announced he’s returning to work after he was fired by the BBC over a “racist” royal baby photo.
The 61-year-old comic was sacked last month for sharing a picture of a chimp captioned: “Royal baby leaves hospital” hours after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry presented their baby to the world.
Baker confirmed he had created a solo podcast and would be back on air next year.
He told his Twitter followers: “My own standalone podcast, featuring all the old firm and even the Sausage Sandwich Game, will begin in the new year.
“Emails encouraged, calls taken, subjects bizarre. A twice a week meeting, we can rule the world.”
The tweet ended with the hashtag “#CandyManReturns” referencing his radio nickname.
Baker’s Saturday show ran on 5 Live from 2008 until his dismissal last month.
His controversial tweet showed an image of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee dressed in clothes with the caption: “Royal Baby leaves hospital” that led to accusations of racism, which he denied.
Baker blasted the Beeb for “throwing him under a bus” and told Radio 5 Live controller Jonathan Wall to “f*** you and f*** off” when he was fired over the phone.
The DJ bizarrely claimed to have been unaware that Meghan – who is mixed race – and Harry were the parents.
He claimed the image of a chimp in an overcoat and bowler hat accompanied by a couple was his “go-to photo when anyone posh has a baby”.
He said: “Literally put a gun to my head and say ‘who was having a baby?’ I wouldn’t have been able to tell you”.
The comic added: “You see these sorts of things happened to other people and you kill yourself laughing. It’s a Twitter storm”.
BBC Radio 5 Live previously dropped Baker’s soccer phone-in show in 1997 when the broadcaster’s news chief Tony Hall, now the corporation’s director general, said he had crossed “the line between being humorous and controversial and being insulting”.
His BBC London 94.9 show was also axed in 2012, days before he was due to be inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame.
The DJ has been unafraid to publicly criticise his BBC bosses, calling them “pinheaded weasels”.
Baker, who hosted a weekly show on 5 Live, made his name as a journalist on the punk fanzine Sniffin’ Glue before going on to work at NME and launching a career in TV and radio.
He denied bullying campmates in 2016 when he was the first in the series to get the boot from I’m A Celebrity.
He later issued a grovelling apology.
He said: “I just want to formally apologise for the outrage I caused and explain how I got myself into this mess.
“I chose the wrong photo to illustrate a joke. Disastrously so.
“I would like once and for all to apologise to every single person who, quite naturally, took the awful connection at face value.
“I understand that and all of the clamour and opprobrium I have faced since. I am not feeling sorry for myself. I f***ed up. Badly.”
The comic performed a live show in Nottingham soon after his sacking by the corporation which ended with a standing ovation and Baker describing it as “one of the greatest nights of my career”.
Police dropped an investigation into Baker over the royal baby tweet.
Baker worked at BBC Radio 5 Live from 1990-93 before rejoining in 2008 until his sacking.
His earnings for the show – which attracted half a million listeners each Saturday – were not included in the broadcaster’s annual salary list.
This suggests he was paid less than the £150,000 threshold that requires wages to be made public.
