TV chef James Martin has apologised for “any offence or upset caused” after being accused of “bullying” his ITV colleagues.

The star, who was brought up near Malton, has reportedly been spoken to by the channel following a complaint from an employee described as “his closest colleague” that was registered in May.

This complaint came after the filming of his next cookery show James Martin’s Spanish Adventure and, according to US Deadline, it’s the second one to follow an incident that occurred in 2018. Martin’s production company, Blue Marlin Television, has acknowledged the complaints, saying “lessons have been learned”.

It’s been alleged that Martin reduced members of the new ITV special’s crew to tears in front of their fellow employees, and then changed schedules that would have only given them a few hours of sleep. Martin is then claimed to have shown up late despite being the one to change the schedule.

In a joint statement, Martin and production company Blue Marlin said they "agree lessons have been learned".

Blue Marlin Television, which has made several programmes with Martin, also took responsibility for damaging his house and garden during a separate incident in 2018.

The damage led to the presenter becoming angry, something which he and the company said he "wholly regrets".

Martin is a co-founder of the production company with Fiona Lindsay, and the pair are currently its joint managing directors.

According to US publication Deadline, Martin was "accused of berating people" and "reducing them to tears in front of other colleagues" while filming the Spanish Adventure programme in May.

The news outlet also alleged Martin was "changing schedules at the last minute, giving his team just a few hours of sleep before the following morning's shoot", which he reportedly arrived an hour late for himself.

An ITV spokesman said: "Following a complaint we received in May from members of the Blue Marlin production team about the filming of James Martin's Spanish Adventure, we contacted Blue Marlin to discuss these concerns and to understand how the issues raised were being addressed and what actions were being taken.

"As a result, we made a number of recommendations for Blue Marlin to implement as soon as possible, sharing best practice of some of our own relevant procedures around staff welfare and reiterating our Supplier Code of Conduct."

In their joint statement, Martin and Lindsay said they "have taken on board ITV's recommendations and their sharing of best practice, and are in the process of fully implementing".

Martin is well known for presenting several cookery programmes for ITV, and previously fronted similar shows for the BBC from 2005 until 2015.