The Russell Brand Show Prank Calls Row

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In an episode of '' The Russell Brand Show'' broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Saturday 18 October 2008, comedian Russell Brand and presenter Jonathan Ross made

prank call A prank call (also known as a crank call) is a telephone call intended by the caller as a practical joke played on the person answering. It is often a type of nuisance call. It can be illegal under certain circumstances. Recordings of prank pho ...

s to actor

Andrew Sachs Andreas Siegfried Sachs (7 April 1930 – 23 November 2016), known professionally as Andrew Sachs, was a German-born British actor and writer. He made his name on British television and found his greatest fame for his portrayal of the comical Sp ...

that created controversy in the United Kingdom. Brand and Ross called Sachs to interview him on air; when he did not answer, they left lewd messages on his answering machine, including comments about Brand's relationship with Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie. After initially receiving little attention, a 26 October article in ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...

'' led to widespread criticism of Brand, Ross and the editorial decisions of the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

. The event became known as Sachsgate or Manuelgate (a reference to Sachs' ''

Fawlty Towers ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Televisio ...

'' character Manuel). Brand and Ross were criticised by a number of MPs, including the Prime Minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

, and the BBC received a record number of complaints. The BBC suspended Ross while it and Ofcom launched investigations. Both Brand and Radio 2 controller

Lesley Douglas Lesley Douglas (born 7 June 1963) is a British former radio executive. She was the Controller of BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music from early 2004 until her resignation in October 2008 over The Russell Brand Show prank calls row. Early life Lesley Doug ...

resigned from the BBC. On 30 October, the BBC suspended Ross without pay for twelve weeks. The BBC was fined £150,000 by Ofcom.

Background

From April 2006 through to October 2008, Russell Brand presented the weekly BBC radio show '' The Russell Brand Show'', with co-host

Matt Morgan Matthew Thomas Morgan (born September 10, 1976) is an American politician, actor and retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is a current City Commissioner in Longwood, Florida. He is known for his time in Total Nonstop Actio ...

. Brand was also joined by a variety of celebrity guests, including

Noel Gallagher Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the chief songwriter, lead guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis until their split in 2009. After leaving Oasis, he formed ...

Noel Fielding Noel Fielding (; (born 21 May 1973) is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for his work with The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside Julian Barratt in the 2000s, and more recently as a co-presenter of ''The Great British Bake Off'' ...

Jonah Hill Jonah Hill Feldstein (born December 20, 1983) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is known for his comedic roles in films including ''Superbad'' (2007), '' Knocked Up'' (2007), '' 21 Jump Street'' (2012), '' This Is the End'' (201 ...

and Morrissey. On 11 October 2008,

David Baddiel David Lionel Baddiel (; born 28 May 1964) is an English comedian, presenter, screenwriter, and author. He is known for his work alongside Rob Newman in ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' and his comedy partnership with Frank Skinner. He has als ...

co-hosted Brand's show. Baddiel recalled having met Georgina Baillie at Brand's home and being told that her grandfather was actor

. According to Baddiel, Baillie said: "Don't tell him I was here!"

Prank calls

On Thursday 16 October 2008, Sachs, who portrayed Manuel in the 1970s BBC television sitcom ''

'', was scheduled to be a phone-in guest on Brand's evening radio show. The show was pre-recorded due to Brand's work commitments. Brand had briefly been in a relationship with Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie. After being unable to reach Sachs on his home telephone, Brand and his co-host of the week, fellow Radio 2 DJ Jonathan Ross, left Sachs four voice messages on his answering machine. In the first message, Brand joked about ''Fawlty Towers'' and the fact that both he and Sachs had appeared in ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused o ...

'', but was interrupted by Ross shouting out "he fucked your granddaughter". The rest of the message and the following three messages were all characterised by Brand and Ross attempting to apologise for Ross' outburst, but each quickly descended into farce; for example, Brand sang to Sachs: "It was consensual and she wasn't menstrual", and Ross asked to marry him. Brand later said that listening to the calls was like hearing "two idiots dancing towards a canyon"; however, no complaints were received.

Complaints

On 25 October, Brand presented his last edition of his radio show with co-host

Simon Amstell Simon Marc Amstell (born 29 November 1979) is a British comedian, writer and director. He wrote and directed the films '' Carnage'' (2017) and ''Benjamin'' (2018). His work on television has included presenting '' Popworld'' and '' Never Mind th ...

, which they performed live. Shortly before going on air, Brand was informed that ''

'' would be running a story about the phone calls. During the show, Brand apologised to Sachs, but also devoted much of the show to deriding the '' Daily Mail'' for its support of

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

in the lead-up to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In his apology to Sachs, Brand said: "What's worse – leaving a swearword on Andrew Sachs' answerphone or tacitly supporting

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

when he took charge of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

?" Sachs later stated he had not given permission for the messages to be broadcast. The BBC originally stated that they were "not aware of any complaint by Mr Sachs", but later confirmed a complaint had been received, and apologised. Brand issued an apology for making the calls but stated it was "funny" during his last radio show, before the ''Mail'' had printed the story. Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator, announced its own investigation. On 28 October, the BBC said that it had received 4,700 complaints, after the calls became international news. Later the same day, this number had passed 10,000. The same afternoon,

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

called the incident "clearly inappropriate and unacceptable". The following day the number of complaints was said to have surpassed 18,000. This incident resulted in the third-highest number of complaints to the BBC, behind only the airing of '' Jerry Springer: The Opera'' and rolling coverage of

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

memorial programmes in April 2021. The incident escalated into a media and political storm that, in much of the British media, eclipsed news of the

global financial crisis Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

, the

US Presidential election The election of the president and the vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not dire ...

, and fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In reaction to the telephone calls, Baillie said that her relationship with Brand had been brief and she now felt "betrayed" that he had revealed it to her grandfather. Baillie called for both Brand and Ross to be sacked by the BBC and stated that she and her family would be considering whether to make a formal complaint to the police. Sachs stated that he had no intention of making a complaint to the police or taking the matter further.

Aftermath

Actions taken by Ross, Brand, and the BBC

On 29 October,

Director-General of the BBC The director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and (from 1994) editor-in-chief of the BBC. The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC (for the period of 1927 to 2007) and then t ...

Mark Thompson announced that Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross were suspended pending the outcome of an investigation by

Tim Davie Timothy Douglas Davie (born 25 April 1967 in Croydon, London) is the current and seventeenth Director-General of the BBC. He succeeded Tony Hall in the role on 1 September 2020. Davie was formerly the chief executive officer of BBC Studios. ...

, director of BBC Audio and Music. The suspension meant that, for the week, Ross would not be appearing on his regular ''

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' is a British chat show presented by Jonathan Ross and broadcast on BBC One between 2001 and 2010. The programme features Ross' take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews (usually three per show) ...

'' television show, ''Film 2008 with Jonathan Ross'', or his Saturday morning Radio 2 show. Similarly Brand would not be hosting his regular Saturday night Radio 2 show or appearing as a guest captain on an episode of ''

Never Mind the Buzzcocks ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' is a British comedy panel game show with a pop music theme. It has aired on Sky Max since September 2021, having originally aired between November 1996 and January 2015 on BBC Two. The original series was first hoste ...

'' due to be aired on 30 October; the episode had been taped before his resignation, and aired on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on 19 January 2011, more than two years after the incident. Thompson called the events a "gross lapse of taste by the performers and the production team" (who chose to broadcast the pre-recorded show) that angered licence-payers. Thompson offered a personal and unreserved apology to Sachs and his family. In an interview, Sachs revealed that he had received and accepted written apologies from Brand and Ross. Brand resigned from the BBC later in the day. On the evening of 30 October it was announced that Controller of Radio 2

had tendered her resignation, which had been accepted. Her resignation letter did not address the question of whether she had approved the pre-recorded show for transmission. That day, Ross was suspended without pay from all BBC shows for a period of twelve weeks. The BBC issued an apology on 8 November, stating that the calls were "grossly offensive" and a "serious breach of editorial standards". The corporation apologised specifically to Sachs and Baillie, and also to licence fee payers. The evening before this formal apology, David Barber, head of Specialist Music and Compliance at Radio 2, also resigned. Like Douglas, he had been aware of the contents of the show, and had sanctioned the segment's broadcast.

Reactions from politicians and the media

Fifteen MPs signed a motion in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, tabled by Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay and Conservative MP

Nigel Evans Nigel Martin Evans (born 10 November 1957) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ribble Valley (UK Parliament constituency), Ribble Valley constituency in Lancashire si ...

, calling for Brand and Ross to no longer be funded by the

licence fee A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence f ...

(which funds the BBC). The chairman of the House of Commons select committee on culture, media and sport,

John Whittingdale Sir John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale (born 16 October 1959) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Maldon (and its predecessors) since 1992. A member of the Conservative Party, Whittingdale served as the Minister of ...

, stated that an investigation by the BBC was needed, but stopped short of calling for Ross and Brand to be sacked. The chairman of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

Select Committee on Communication, Lord Fowler, in a letter to ''The Times'' (see Fowler in Further reading), stated that there were "fundamental flaws" in the way that the BBC was regulated and governed, and that there was "confusion all round" because two parallel bodies, the

BBC Trust The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...

and Ofcom, were investigating the incident, and it was "both unclear which of them the public should complain to and which of them had precedence over the other". Shadow Culture Secretary

Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...

, speaking on the Radio 4 ''

Today Programme ''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is a long-running British morning news and current-affairs Radio program, radio programme on BBC Radio 4. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am, it is produced by BBC N ...

'' on 30 October, also refused to say whether he thought Ross should be sacked, asserting that politicians should remain at "arm's length" from such decisions. In a speech at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

the previous day he had criticised the decision by the BBC to broadcast the programme, which had been recorded two days prior to its transmission, saying that " e BBC was quite wrong to take the decision to broadcast the offensive phone calls". He also demurred about calling for the resignations of anyone in BBC management, saying that " is wrong, in principle, for politicians to be calling for heads of individual broadcasting to be removed", and criticised the BBC for not releasing the name of the person who had given approval for the show to be broadcast. Hunt was speaking to the LSE about socially responsible broadcasting and stated "I do think the BBC is a socially responsible broadcaster, I just think we need to hear that." He argued that broadcasters were "not being ambitious enough", and outlined his party's plans, should it be elected to government at the next general election, to relax regulation for those broadcasters who agreed to provide only "socially responsible" output. In addition to citing the prank calls as a "perfect example" of where such a "responsibility deal" could have operated, he also pointed to

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

as an example, stating that it was "not good enough" for it to produce "worthy" programmes such as '' Dispatches'' documenting alcohol abuse in the US, whilst at the same time it was broadcasting programmes such as ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on ...

'' where such abuse took up, according to his estimates, 18% of screen time. The culture spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, Don Foster, criticised this idea, stating that it "threatened the very foundational principles of freedom and independence" of British media, arguing that such government interference in television programming would be "a very sad day for British broadcasting", and pointing out that regulatory mechanisms already exist to deal with issues such as this. On 29 October, Conservative MP

Nadine Dorries Nadine Vanessa Dorries (''née'' Bargery, 21 May 1957) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2021 to 2022 under Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A member of the Conservative Party, she ...

called for the BBC to terminate the contracts of both Ross and Brand, and in the Commons David Hanson had criticised the comments for being inappropriate and not "in keeping with broadcasting". The conservative journalist Charles Moore announced he would not pay his television licence after the BBC's failure to sack Ross, a decision which eventually led to Moore's being fined in May 2010. Secretary of State for Justice

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...

, writing in his local newspaper the ''

Lancashire Telegraph The ''Lancashire Telegraph'', formerly the ''Lancashire Evening Telegraph'', is a local tabloid newspaper distributed in East Lancashire, England. It is edited by Karl Holbrook. There are around twenty towns in the area, including Blackburn, ...

'' on 30 October (see Straw in Further reading), became the first Cabinet Minister to call for the pair to be sacked, arguing that if both presenters had worked in

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (an ...

"they'd have been given their P45 before you could say 'Jack Robinson'." On the same day, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons,

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

, called for a Commons debate on the BBC's handling of the affair.

Reaction against censures and suspensions

In the days following the suspensions, a number of celebrities, particularly from television and radio, came out in support of Brand and Ross. Many felt that, whilst the incident was unacceptable, it was not deserving of the strong criticism it received, especially when there were other issues troubling the United Kingdom. Rod McKenzie, the editor of BBC Radio 1's ''

Newsbeat ''Newsbeat'' is the BBC's radio news programme broadcast on Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network. ''Newsbeat'' is produced by BBC News but differs from the BBC's other news programmes in its remit to provide news tailored for a specifically you ...

'', observed on the BBC Editors' weblog (see Further reading) that audience reactions to Brand's and Ross' remarks had been polarised, noting that whilst his colleagues at Radio 4,

Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcas ...

, BBC television, and the

World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

, had been saying one thing, the younger audiences of Radio 1 had been reacting quite differently, and were broadly supportive of Ross and Brand. Some were amazed at the comments of the Prime Minister, with one person observing that " e financial markets are wrecked and all he can do is talk about a petty joke." Others stated that people should "calm down", "get a grip", and that the subject had been "blown out of all proportion". McKenzie also characterised the reaction from the news media as containing "anger: some genuine, some of it synthetic. Some of it comes from the BBC's usual critics." He stated that for the people who worked in the media "profile and salary-envy and

schadenfreude Schadenfreude (; ; 'harm-joy') is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. It is a borrowed word from German, with no direct translation ...

may play a part in all this. But how many heard the original transmission and how many are responding to the newspapers' quotes or others' arguments?" Tim Shaw, a DJ for

Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British National radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via Digital audio broadcasting and on 1215 kHz MW. History 1993–1997: Virg ...

, also supported Ross and Brand, appearing on BBC News wearing a T-shirt that read "I back Brand." The television presenter

Paul O'Grady Paul James O'Grady MBE DL (born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, broadcaster, actor, writer and former drag queen. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, very popular in ...

stated that the comedians' behaviour was "well out of order". However, he also suggested that the Prime Minister should "get on with more important matters" than complaining about "media gossip".

Carol McGiffin Carol Deirdre McGiffin (born 18 February 1960) is an English radio and television broadcaster, who has appeared on the daytime talk show ''Loose Women'' since the early 2000s. She appeared on the twelfth series of '' Celebrity Big Brother''. ...

, a presenter on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

daytime Daytime as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the globe's hemis ...

programme ''

Loose Women ''Loose Women'' (previously known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV1 weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about ...

'' similarly supported the pair, criticising those who complained and stating that she "could not wait" to download the official

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

which included the incident.

of the group

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

, a friend of Brand's, complained that the press had "dictated the tone" of the controversy, and thought it "typical of the English in general" when "10,000 people get outraged, but only days after it has happened". Gallagher said he had spoken to Brand, who told Gallagher he was "going to fall on his sword". A petition on the GoPetition web site, calling for the BBC "to turn blame on the 'Andrew Sachs' incident away from Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, and instead onto whoever green lighted the show" had garnered 336 signatures by 29 October. At the same time, a similar group on Facebook had over 1,000 members. By 30 October, the petition had risen to 4,000 signatures and the Facebook group to 15,609 members. By 2 November, the Facebook group had over 30,000 members, which had risen to over 43,000 members by 5 November. On 30 October, fans of Ross and Brand protested outside the offices of the BBC. On 31 October, fans prepared to hold a protest outside the offices of the '' Daily Mail'' and of the BBC. Comedian

Jimmy Carr James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972) is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer, and actor. He is known for his deadpan delivery of controversial one-liners and distinctive laugh, for which he has been both praised and criti ...

also expressed his support for Ross, saying the issue had been "blown out of proportion", and blamed the media themselves for escalating it further, stating that Ross was a "national treasure". Former celebrity publicist

Max Clifford Maxwell Frank Clifford (6 April 1943 – 10 December 2017) was an English publicist who was particularly associated with promoting " kiss and tell" stories in tabloid newspapers. In December 2012, as part of Operation Yewtree, Clifford was arr ...

played down the apparent outrage aimed at Brand. In an interview he said "I don't think this will cause any problems for Russell Brand. He's known to be controversial and, if anything, it will make him more popular amongst his fans, who will have thought this was hilarious...They won't see anything wrong in what he did. It is a big PR success for him...He will have no problem with his career." TV critic and columnist

Charlie Brooker Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...

stated on his show, '' Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe'', his worry that the controversy would lead to a "

chilling effect In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...

" on comedy, and that the BBC and others would "self-censor too much" in future. He went on to say that the attitude displayed by the complainants and the BBC's backing down would have, in earlier times, precluded the production of much of what was at the time edgy comedy and "made culture poorer for it" (citing ''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...

'', ''

The Day Today ''The Day Today'' is a British comedy television show that parodies television news and current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994 on BBC2. It was created by Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and is an adaptation of the radio programme '' ...

'' and '' The Young Ones'' amongst others as shows that would have not been commissioned owing to their controversial content). While criticising those who had complained without seeing the programme and attacking newspapers that attempted to stir up further controversy (in particular the ''Daily Mail''), he did not appear to defend Brand and Ross in particular, stating that the possibility of people being offended by some misjudged humour is "the price you pay for freedom of speech." In a further column in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', he reiterated this point as well as saying that "people who retrospectively complain to Ofcom about material they've only read about second-hand are, in essence, a bunch of sanctimonious cry-babies indulging in a wretched form of masturbation."

Reaction from Georgina Baillie

Interviews

Reacting to the suspensions of Brand and Ross on 29 October, Baillie remarked: "I'm thrilled because justice has been done ... It's despicable. Calling me that in public, not only does it damage my relationship with my granddad, but it could permanently damage my life as well". A week later, on 5 November 2008, UK television channel

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

broadcast an hour-length documentary on the incident, titled ''Russell & Ross: What the F*** Was All That About?'' featuring an exclusive interview with Baillie. Baillie stated in the interview that "I think it's way out of proportion what's happened and I don't hate either of them – I don't at all", going on to say "I think they're really talented comedians and I think a world without Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand would be a very sad, dull place." She concluded by saying that Brand needed to learn about respecting women, while Ross should just think before he speaks, "I don't have any harder feeling than that." Baillie also made clear that she would not object to the reinstatement of both Brand and Ross. On 14 May 2009, Baillie was a guest on the BBC politics and current affairs programme '' This Week''. She was questioned by host

Andrew Neil Andrew Ferguson Neil (born 21 May 1949) is a Scottish former journalist and broadcaster who is chairman of ''The Spectator'' and presenter of '' The Andrew Neil Show'' on Channel 4. He was editor of ''The Sunday Times'' from 1983 to 1994. He f ...

and regular guests

Michael Portillo Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (; born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster and former politician. His broadcast series include railway documentaries such as '' Great British Railway Journeys'' and '' Great Continental Railway Jour ...

and Diane Abbott about the Brand row within discussion of the general subject of the present day worth and genuineness of public figures saying sorry, in the wake of public apologies from members of parliament (MPs) and Prime Minister Gordon Brown following the events of the MP's expenses row. Asked by Neil if receiving an apology from Brand and Ross had mattered to her, she said yes, as she had been "publicly offended and humiliated", and her grandfather "had been humiliated too". When asked by Abbott if all the publicity surrounding the Brand row had helped her career, she responded "not necessarily ... one would think so, but not really." Neil further asked if the apology she received had helped, she replied yes, stating "definitely" to the follow-up comment from Neil of "better to get it than not get it?" When asked finally on the row by Neil if she thought the apologies from Brand and Ross were genuine, she replied that she thought Ross' was, but the fact that Brand had joked about the row on his later tour "negated" his apology.

Songwriting

In 2010, Baillie teamed up with singer

Adam Ant Stuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant (born 3 November 1954), is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten ...

(whose drummer Hayley Leggs had been a member, alongside Baillie, of

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

troupe The Satanic Sluts) to compose the song "Gun in Your Pocket", about the incident, which he intended to release as the lead single for his ninth album '' Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter'' (with a rerecording of early 1980s outtake Who's A Goofy Bunny Then? as the B-side in tribute to the recently deceased Malcolm McLaren). The project was put on hold when Ant (who has a history of

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

and was widely suspected around this time to have been undergoing a fresh manic episode) was once again

sectioned Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qualified agent to have symptoms of severe mental disorder is detained in a psychiatric hos ...

on 18 May 2010. However, he soon resumed his comeback, and Gun in Your Pocket was finally released in October 2012 as the B-side to Cool Zombie, the eventual first single from the album (which finally emerged in January 2013). Baillie and Ant composed a second track about the Ross-Brand affair, Rubber Medusa, a song focussed mainly on Brand and written from Baillie's perspective. Baillie's band, the Poussez Posse, performed this second song regularly in live support slots for Ant's UK, mainland European and Australian tours during 2011–2012. Commenting on the two songs in an interview by John Robb, Baillie noted "The first one that Adam and I wrote was about an ex of mine- guess who! Which is not on the album, which is called Gun in Your Pocket ...(Subsequently) the first one Adam and I wrote together was Rubber Medusa, which was about Russell, Adam came up with the title which is a quote from the

Jubilee A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...

film,

rand The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...

does look like a rubber

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those ...

so I see why he said it."

Support for Lesley Douglas

A number of radio personalities employed by the BBC came out in support of

, after her resignation. Douglas was aware of the contents of the programme but had not heard them before they were broadcast. She sanctioned its broadcast with a single word email of "Yes" sent from her

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

phone. Amongst her supporters were Chris Evans and

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekd ...

, both of whom worked for Radio 2 at the time, and Dame

Liz Forgan Dame Elizabeth Anne Lucy Forgan, DBE (born 31 August 1944) is an English journalist, and radio and television executive. Early life Forgan was educated at Benenden School, Kent, and St Hugh's College, Oxford, then an all-female college. She ini ...

, who called her one of the "outstanding broadcasters of her generation", and said that the BBC had "lost its wits". Mark Thompson said that because of her knowledge of the broadcast, she "had to shoulder some of the responsibility".

Subsequent appearances by Brand and Ross

Ross had been scheduled to host the 2008

British Comedy Awards The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. The British Comedy Awards (1 ...

for

during the period of his suspension from the BBC; however, on 31 October he stepped down. On 31 October, Brand left the country, saying that he had work to do in the United States, including television programmes and film collaborations with

Judd Apatow Judd Apatow (; born December 6, 1967) is an American comedian, director, producer, and screenwriter, best known for his work in comedy and drama films. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and directed the films '' ...

and

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...

. The second series of Brand's

television show ''

Russell Brand's Ponderland ''Russell Brand's Ponderland'' is a British television comedy series which was broadcast on the TV station Channel 4, presented by comedian and actor Russell Brand. The show consists largely of Brand giving a series of monologues in a stand-up s ...

'' aired as normal on the previous evening, attracting one million viewers, the show's largest ever audience. A further 180,000 watched the show on the

timeshift channel A timeshift channel (sometimes referred to as a +1 channel) is a television channel carrying time-delayed reruns of its "parent" channel's programming. This channel runs alongside their parent: the term "timeshift" does not refer to a network br ...

Channel 4 +1. The first series of ''Ponderland'', aired in October 2007, had been watched by 840,000 viewers, including those watching Channel 4 +1. The channel reported that it had received 164 complaints from the public, many of these criticising the decision to broadcast the programme, rather than a reflection on the content, and the majority before the programme was transmitted; the show also attracted 212 emails and phone-calls of praise from fans and as such was the most praised programme screened on

for that month. Brand continued to be on the front cover of

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...

's "Vegetarian Starter Kit" booklet, despite protests to the organisation. PETA's director, Robbie LeBlanc, said that Brand, who had previously won PETA's "Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity" contest twice, would remain on the cover "because Mr Sachs, who is also a PETA supporter, has accepted Mr Brand's apology, and that's good enough for us." Brand went on to win the British Comedy Award for Best Live Standup Performer. In his acceptance speech, Brand dedicated his award to Ross. After being taken off the air due to Ross' suspension, ''

'' returned to

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

on 23 January 2009, featuring guests

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Gol ...

, Lee Evans and

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

. The show was watched by 5.1 million viewers, an increase from the 3.74 million of the last show before going off air. Ross' return attracted 25 complaints and three messages of support to the BBC. In 2009, ''

'' was nominated for a BAFTA. According to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', Ross was nominated soon after he was banned. Melody Sachs complained about Ross being nominated so soon after the controversy in an interview with ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', saying: "I am amazed that Ross should get rewarded with a mouth like his. Nobody is saying he hasn't got talent, but what he did was so disgusting. Of course, he is not worth the money, but he is good at his job. However, I don't think he should be rewarded so soon after what happened. It is like people are saying, 'Let's forget all about it and see what we can give him.' It is wrong and bad timing to give or even put up this guy for recognition when he has done such a terrible thing. It was unforgivable, really. I'm not angry, I just don't believe it." Sachs himself said that the nomination was "a bit of a surprise", and that "One would question the reasons when it comes so quickly after what happened. I wonder how much it has to do with trying to comfort him. I don't know. That is how it happens. That is showbusiness."

BBC Trust ruling

On 21 November 2008, the BBC's watchdog

said that the phone calls were a "deplorable intrusion with no editorial justification." The Trust found that the existing BBC guidelines should have been sufficient to have prevented the incident, and that the "very offensive" programme should "never have been recorded." It found the failures lay in mistakes made by BBC editorial and compliance management. The Trust gave its backing to the BBC's response to the incident and Ross' suspension. Echoing the findings of the BBC Trust, the BBC itself stated the incident was a "very, very serious failure in a radio programme where editorial judgement was exercised that seriously let the BBC down." The Trust also criticised Brand's "so-called apology" of 25 October, and the staff of

Chris Moyles Christopher David Moyles (born 22 February 1974) is an English radio and television presenter, author and presenter of ''The Chris Moyles Show'' on Radio X. Previously he has presented ''The Chris Moyles Show'' on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 20 ...

' Radio 1 show for also breaching BBC guidelines for comments by Brand in an interview on the morning of 21 October, at a time when children were likely to be listening. The Trust recommended tighter controls for programmes such as Brand's, made by companies owned by their performers. Long-term effects of the controversy would include the establishment of a register of "high-risk" programmes.

References

External links

Ofcom ruling on the incident
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row, The 2008 in radio 2008 in the United Kingdom 2008 controversies BBC controversies BBC Radio 2 Entertainment scandals Prank calling Friday Night with Jonathan Ross Radio controversies Russell Brand