COMEDIAN Dave Gorman has told a court that colleagues on the Mrs Merton Show believed an alleged assault by veteran DJ Dave Lee Travis on a female television personality was "aggressive" and not a Carry On-style "playful" act.

He said the former Radio 1 star had appeared as a guest on the comedy chat show in the mid-1990s when he heard later that Travis had "grabbed" the woman's breasts in the corridor of the BBC television studio.

The alleged victim was working as a part of the production crew at the time.

Gorman, who was a writer on the Mrs Merton Show show, told Travis's retrial at Southwark Crown Court in London: "My recollection was everyone in the team would have known. I recall discussions and questions about whether it had been a sort of 'Carry On film wahey', which might be playful albeit ill-judged, or whether it was aggressive.

"My recollection was it was aggressive."

In a police interview read to the court, Travis said the allegation he grabbed a female TV personality's breasts at a BBC studio was "totally untrue".

"I would have been crazy to grope a woman in a corridor," he said.

"I absolutely, categorically did not grab her breasts."

Travis, 69, who is charged under his real name David Griffin, denies two counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault.

He is facing a retrial on two counts - one of indecent assault of a woman between November 1 1990 and January 31 1991, and another of sexual assault on a different woman between June 1 2008 and November 30 2008 - on which a jury was unable to reach verdicts at a trial earlier this year.

Travis, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, has also pleaded not guilty to an additional count of indecent assault which is alleged to have taken place on January 17 1995.

The trial continues.