Britain’s Got Talent judge David Walliams has joked that he might never see his National TV Award after his fellow-panellist Simon Cowell accepted it on his behalf.

He told Good Morning Britain he still had not seen the gong he won for best TV talent show judge – beating Simon to it in the process.

David said: “I’ve got a feeling I’m never going to get that National TV Award – he’s probably already scratched my name off it and put his name on it.

David Walliams Simon Cowell
(Tim Ireland/PA)

“It’s a great feeling mainly because Simon Cowell didn’t win it – he got really desperate in the last few days before the voting closed and started tweeting pictures of his dog saying ‘please vote for my daddy’ and he said he was going to adopt some kittens if he won … And he still didn’t win.”

David, who has been filming in Kenya for Comic Relief, said he decided not to do another swim to raise money this year and instead has written a book, called The Queen’s Orang-Utan, with all the profits going to charity.

David Walliams Simon Cowell
(Ian West/PA)

He said: “I don’t think the public wanted to see me in swimming trunks anymore so this year I actually wrote a children’s book.”

The star completed charity swims across the English Channel in 2006 and the Strait of Gibraltar in 2008 and in 2011 he raised more than £1 million for Sport Relief when he completed a 140-mile swim along the Thames.