The 2012 William Shatner joke that upset people in Devon

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Credit: Far Out / John Manard

Sat 4 July 2026 12:30, UK

Everything is pretty laid back down in Devon; it’s all cows, cobbled streets, rolling hills and quite tasty rice puddings. It definitely isn’t a haven for errant sex workers trying to extract money for favours, but you would have to convince William Shatner of that.

Back in the day, 2012 to be exact, the Star Trek veteran took a break from being in insurance adverts and doing weird talking-jazz versions of Elton John songs and sat in the famous Have I Got News For You hotseat for a stab at hosting the show, something that ended up getting him in a little bit of trouble with the residents of the county once voted as having the best lifestyle in the UK.

The problems came when the show’s panel were discussing the town of Ilfracombe, and Shatner, being from Canada, struggled to pronounce it properly, leading Charlie Brooker to remark that he had made it sound ‘deeply sexual’. Shatner could have laughed at that and moved on and avoided any hot water, but instead, he decided to say, for reasons only known to himself, that “the place is laced with prostitution”.

Now, the residents of Ilfracombe were not going to take this slight lying down. The former Mayor Paul Crabb went as far as to email Shatner’s agents to relay his displeasure, quite cleverly pointing out that although the ageing space captain had been to places no man had been before, he hadn’t visited the Devon town in his life, and so would have no idea if there were lots of prostitutes there or not.

Crabb stated: “If he came, we could show him that there is no prostitution in Ilfracombe and that it is a lovely coastal town with spectacular scenery and a close community”.

Again, you might have thought that would be the end of it, but to Shatner’s credit, he took responsibility and replied to the email, albeit in a kind of weirdly inappropriate way. Signing his missive ‘Bill’, he wrote that prostitution “commonly means sex for something of value” and “I would be hard pressed to believe that sex was not being had in Ilfracombe for something of value, perhaps a lengthy marriage, children or a valuable career”.

So, that’s odd, but he qualified it slightly by adding, “In any event, my apologies for having singled out Ilfracombe as a potential haven for prostitution. With you overseeing, I am sure that will not happen”. Former Mayor Crabb seemed reasonably happy with that mea culpa, saying that most of the town’s residents were a good-natured bunch and that plenty would have taken the barb as tongue-in-cheek humour, although there were some who were upset with the ex-James T Kirk.

Shatner is now 95 and was in his 80s then, so he probably doesn’t care that much, and he is also not likely to ever go to Devon, no matter how good the afternoon teas might be, and they are probably excellent.

Despite his ever-advancing years, however, Shatner has always been a sprightly chap, and even this week he came across as a man at least ten years younger as he told an entertainment website, “I don’t wanna die!”, mainly because most people don’t for a start, but also because he loves his dogs too much to leave them behind.