Do we like Alfie Deyes?
Our score: 6 out of 10. No harm found and he owns his mistakes, but the tone-deaf moments are a pattern of carelessness and the verified good deeds are thin.
Alfie Deyes was born in Tottenham, and the family moved to Brighton when he was nearly four. He started making videos at 15 on the family camcorder, and the channel grew so fast he shelved his university plans. He told one interviewer that when he started it wasn't a job, and that his aim was keeping it real.
By 2015 he was a YouTube giant with 4.4 million followers and two Pointless Books, and he was already fretting about it. He said being a role model scared him, asking what would happen if he ever did something stupid. Fair question, mate, because he then did a few stupid things in public.
The big one was June 2018. He posted a video of trying to spend just £1 on necessities for a day, and viewers called it “poverty entertainment”. He changed the title and apologised, saying he never meant to upset anyone. In his apology video he said the reaction had “opened my eyes” and that he would donate the proceeds to charity, though I couldn't find a report confirming the money was paid.
Two months later he posted a photo sitting on an AIDS memorial at Brighton Pride, and fans called it disrespectful. He apologised, deleted it and said he hadn't known what the structure was. Then a joke about an ant made it worse, and he later urged people to educate rather than attack. In December 2019 a clip of his partner shouting “help!” while he grabbed her leg drew complaints that it made light of domestic abuse. He apologised and pulled the video.
On the harm check, the record is clean. No searches turned up anti-LGBTQ+ campaigning, vaccine or climate nonsense, or culture-war grifting from him, and no one he platforms for harm came up either. What turned up is a pattern of not thinking before posting, with a quick apology each time. An apology only counts if behaviour changes, and the sources I found show no repeat after 2019.
The recent news is a donkey sanctuary. The Tab reports a planning application for a donkey enclosure, stable, shepherd huts and wildlife pond. A local society complained that the area's character had changed with fencing and gates already installed, and a resident called it an “unjustified and harmful development within the countryside”. The Tab carried no comment from Deyes, and some reports say the plans have since been approved, which I couldn't confirm from a page I could open.