By Richard Bailey
What is the BBC playing at? One of their biggest and unique stars has resigned and they have suspended the highest paid presenter on their books. I’m talking of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross of course. Now something has to be wrong doesn’t it? There must be a good reason why these entertainers are so popular, and I think I’m safe in saying it’s not because they offend all their fans. They are funny and talented presenters and the level of fame and stardom they have achieved speaks for its self. Both Brand and Ross have won Sony Gold Awards for their respective Radio 2 shows, one of the highest accolades that a British radio programme can achieve.
The controversy started one Thursday afternoon, while Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, Brand’s celebrity co-host for the day were pre-recording for Brand’s hit Radio 2 show. As anyone who has ever listened to his show will know, a typical show consists of wacky off the wall banter, which is largely unscripted, interlaced with celebrity guests either in the studio or on the phone. One of the guests scheduled for the week in question was Faulty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, so as planned Brand and Ross call up Sachs for the interview. Unfortunately though the call goes to voicemail…….
Message one: As Brand begins to leave a message, Ross blurts out: "He fucked your granddaughter... I'm sorry I apologise. Andrew, I apologise, I got excited, what can I say - it just came out.”
Brand replies: "Andrew Sachs, I did not do nothing with Georgina - oh no, I've revealed I know her name. Oh no, it's a disaster."
Ross goes on to say: "If he's like most people of a certain age, he's probably got a picture of his grandchildren when they're young right by the phone. So while he's listening to the messages, he's looking at a picture of her about nine on a swing..."
Message two: "Andrew, this is Russell Brand. I'm so sorry about the last message, it was part of the radio show - it was a mistake."
Ross adds: "It might be true but we didn't want to break it to you in such a harsh way."
Brand goes on to say: "No, I'm sorry, I'll do anything. I wore a condom. Put the phone down. Oh, what's going to happen?"
Message three: The message opens with Ross saying: "She was bent over the couch..."
Brand then improvises a song which includes the lines: "I said some things I didn't of oughta, like I had sex with your granddaughter..."
Message four: Brand opens the message with: "Alright Andrew Sachs' answerphone? I'm ever so so sorry for what I said about Andrew Sachs."
"Just say sorry," adds Ross,
"I'll kill you," says Brand laughing.
"Don't say you'll wear him as a hat - just say sorry," continues Ross.
"Sorry, right," adds Brand.
A bit of back story is needed to put what may at first seem random tasteless nonsense into context. In Russell’s show the week before a conversation between himself and then co-host David Baddiel about a new hot tub Russell had purchased, revealed that he had ‘entertained’ a dancer from the group the Satanic Sluts called Georgina Baillie, who happened to be Andrew Sachs granddaughter.
Anyone who heard the answer phone conversation in the context of the show could clearly hear that the call was not malicious in anyway. It was done in his usual risky yet cheeky style for which he is now widely known, and no true Russell Brand fans should find this offensive. So why has this turned into a ‘Big Brother Race Row’ style uproar, that even Gordon Brown felt he had to speak out about?
Now we can move on to the backlash, or lack of it. The show aired from 9pm to 11pm on the Saturday after the show was pre-recorded, and the first inkling of any complaint didn’t appear until deep into the following week. Even then it was all very lack lustre and you had to look pretty hard to find much mention of it. The only reason I can come up with for this is that very few listeners were actually offended by it. Sadly however a few BBC hating serial complainers must have seen these small mentions in the tabloids. That was it, the ‘Bat Signal’ went out and all the main protagonists in the complaining world were called to arms. They must have thought all their Christmas’ had come at once, a chance to stuff the licence fee right back in the BBC’s face, one of the biggest comedians in the world and the BBC’s highest paid star, it doesn’t get any better than that.
The fires had been stoked; the complaint letters in the post, and it was just a matter of time. Then it hits ‘BBC could face prosecution over obscene phone calls’ reported in the Mail on Sunday, followed by headlines in all the major news bulletins. Now millions of people who had probably never listened to and will never listen to Russell Brand are aware of the comments made in his show. They are not only played out of context, but to people who were never in the shows target audience. The age old argument ‘if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it’ no longer holds, it’s like playing porn in the middle of the One O’clock news. So it’s no surprise that once it became headline news people would find it offensive, the shows on late on a Saturday night for a reason.
So what did the BBC do? Did they stand up to the critics; continue to offer diverse programming for their vastly differing audience tastes? Did they support their presenters’ right to creative freedom and trust that these experienced entertainers know what their audiences want? Did they realise those 20000 complaints although not a small number is an extremely small percentage of their audience? Of course they didn’t, that would require someone at the BBC to care about delivering quality programming rather than pleasing bureaucrats and the sad people of this world who would complain about Gardeners World if they thought they could. Today is a sad day for the BBC, and unfortunately I can only see it getting worse……..
What is the BBC playing at? One of their biggest and unique stars has resigned and they have suspended the highest paid presenter on their books. I’m talking of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross of course. Now something has to be wrong doesn’t it? There must be a good reason why these entertainers are so popular, and I think I’m safe in saying it’s not because they offend all their fans. They are funny and talented presenters and the level of fame and stardom they have achieved speaks for its self. Both Brand and Ross have won Sony Gold Awards for their respective Radio 2 shows, one of the highest accolades that a British radio programme can achieve.
The controversy started one Thursday afternoon, while Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, Brand’s celebrity co-host for the day were pre-recording for Brand’s hit Radio 2 show. As anyone who has ever listened to his show will know, a typical show consists of wacky off the wall banter, which is largely unscripted, interlaced with celebrity guests either in the studio or on the phone. One of the guests scheduled for the week in question was Faulty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, so as planned Brand and Ross call up Sachs for the interview. Unfortunately though the call goes to voicemail…….
Message one: As Brand begins to leave a message, Ross blurts out: "He fucked your granddaughter... I'm sorry I apologise. Andrew, I apologise, I got excited, what can I say - it just came out.”
Brand replies: "Andrew Sachs, I did not do nothing with Georgina - oh no, I've revealed I know her name. Oh no, it's a disaster."
Ross goes on to say: "If he's like most people of a certain age, he's probably got a picture of his grandchildren when they're young right by the phone. So while he's listening to the messages, he's looking at a picture of her about nine on a swing..."
Message two: "Andrew, this is Russell Brand. I'm so sorry about the last message, it was part of the radio show - it was a mistake."
Ross adds: "It might be true but we didn't want to break it to you in such a harsh way."
Brand goes on to say: "No, I'm sorry, I'll do anything. I wore a condom. Put the phone down. Oh, what's going to happen?"
Message three: The message opens with Ross saying: "She was bent over the couch..."
Brand then improvises a song which includes the lines: "I said some things I didn't of oughta, like I had sex with your granddaughter..."
Message four: Brand opens the message with: "Alright Andrew Sachs' answerphone? I'm ever so so sorry for what I said about Andrew Sachs."
"Just say sorry," adds Ross,
"I'll kill you," says Brand laughing.
"Don't say you'll wear him as a hat - just say sorry," continues Ross.
"Sorry, right," adds Brand.
A bit of back story is needed to put what may at first seem random tasteless nonsense into context. In Russell’s show the week before a conversation between himself and then co-host David Baddiel about a new hot tub Russell had purchased, revealed that he had ‘entertained’ a dancer from the group the Satanic Sluts called Georgina Baillie, who happened to be Andrew Sachs granddaughter.
Anyone who heard the answer phone conversation in the context of the show could clearly hear that the call was not malicious in anyway. It was done in his usual risky yet cheeky style for which he is now widely known, and no true Russell Brand fans should find this offensive. So why has this turned into a ‘Big Brother Race Row’ style uproar, that even Gordon Brown felt he had to speak out about?
Now we can move on to the backlash, or lack of it. The show aired from 9pm to 11pm on the Saturday after the show was pre-recorded, and the first inkling of any complaint didn’t appear until deep into the following week. Even then it was all very lack lustre and you had to look pretty hard to find much mention of it. The only reason I can come up with for this is that very few listeners were actually offended by it. Sadly however a few BBC hating serial complainers must have seen these small mentions in the tabloids. That was it, the ‘Bat Signal’ went out and all the main protagonists in the complaining world were called to arms. They must have thought all their Christmas’ had come at once, a chance to stuff the licence fee right back in the BBC’s face, one of the biggest comedians in the world and the BBC’s highest paid star, it doesn’t get any better than that.
The fires had been stoked; the complaint letters in the post, and it was just a matter of time. Then it hits ‘BBC could face prosecution over obscene phone calls’ reported in the Mail on Sunday, followed by headlines in all the major news bulletins. Now millions of people who had probably never listened to and will never listen to Russell Brand are aware of the comments made in his show. They are not only played out of context, but to people who were never in the shows target audience. The age old argument ‘if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it’ no longer holds, it’s like playing porn in the middle of the One O’clock news. So it’s no surprise that once it became headline news people would find it offensive, the shows on late on a Saturday night for a reason.
So what did the BBC do? Did they stand up to the critics; continue to offer diverse programming for their vastly differing audience tastes? Did they support their presenters’ right to creative freedom and trust that these experienced entertainers know what their audiences want? Did they realise those 20000 complaints although not a small number is an extremely small percentage of their audience? Of course they didn’t, that would require someone at the BBC to care about delivering quality programming rather than pleasing bureaucrats and the sad people of this world who would complain about Gardeners World if they thought they could. Today is a sad day for the BBC, and unfortunately I can only see it getting worse……..
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