2pints-mate 0 Posted October 29, 2008 Share Posted October 29, 2008 Whats the temperature on this here I wonder..... BBC pressured to sack presenters The BBC is coming under increased pressure to sack Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross following their prank calls to actor Andrew Sachs. His granddaughter Georgina Baillie told the Sun the pair "should at least pay for what they've done with their jobs". Tory media spokesman Jeremy Hunt has added to political pressure to find out why Radio 2 approved the material. The BBC has apologised, and it and the regulator Ofcom are investigating following 10,000 complaints. The corporation and watchdog Ofcom have both launched investigations. Brand and Ross made a series of prank calls to Sachs, 78, famous for his part in Fawlty Towers. The calls were broadcast on Radio 2 as part of a pre-recorded show on 18 October. During the calls, Ross revealed Brand had slept with Sachs' granddaughter. 'Breach of privacy' Mr Hunt will say in a speech to the London School of Economics later that it is "wrong for broadcasters to produce programmes that legitimise negative social behaviour". He told BBC News the corporation's reaction to the affair was "concerning". "We still don't know who gave permission for that broadcast to go out. "It looks like it broke the broadcasting code about not doing things that are offensive and not doing things that breach people's privacy." Ms Baillie, 23, said she felt "betrayed" and "embarrassed" the relationship had been publicly revealed to her grandfather. She said he was "really upset, and says he wants the whole situation to end". She added of Brand and Ross: "They are beyond contempt. They are warped for what they have put me and my grandfather through. "It was bad enough that they recorded these things on my grandfather's answer machine but astonishing the BBC saw fit to broadcast it when they could have stopped it. "Someone high up at the BBC must have decided it was funny and suitable for national radio. They've shown an appalling lack of judgement." Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also criticised the pair for their "inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour" on Brand's radio show. Link to post Share on other sites
@tokyo 14 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Ross can be funny but Brand is just totally annoying and deserves to be sacked just for that! Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 I say sack em....simply because I don't think Russel Brand is funny and he is a grade A asshole. Ross I like but he can be very close to bone Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Russell brand is a cock - so he should be sacked for that. Wossy - hmm - should know better. Link to post Share on other sites
A lawyer 0 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 They have been suspended. Idiots. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Mr Ross can be very entertaining. Brand though, berry berry bad influence. Link to post Share on other sites
kokodoko 67 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 That brand seems like a real tool.. but i have no brain or opinion.. Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Well it seems like Brand has jumped before he was pushed. Good on him - the smallest of respect has been earnt. Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 The Poet T.B Macaulay once said "that there is nothing so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality" 2 people who heard the broadcast live complained about it at the time - two. The newspapers whip it into a frenzy and even the PM wades in (likely to avert attention from his own woeful performances) 20000 people have now complained to the BBC. The "Satanic slut" granddaughter Ballie gets lots of publicity, her grandfather who made his name offending the Spanish is quite embarrassed of the mountain that started as a molehill and has graciously accepted apologies. Brand takes a walk and Wossy is silenced. Jack Straw, the Lord Chancellor, jumps in to cash on the popular opinion by condemning the BBC's "appalling lapse in standards" and saying Ross and Brand should have been promptly fired. yet on the other hand the frenzy may be partly driven by "salary envy and shadenfreude", a senior BBC executive said today (in the Independent). Radio 1 Newsbeat editor Rod McKenzie highlighted "synthetic" anger over the incident, insisting the corporation was being attacked by its "usual critics". I like Ross, I often download his show and watch it, I look forward to seeing it again. In light of the scrutiny on "standards" at the BBC, Jeremy Clarkson must be sweating... Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 yes, right away. sack Clarkson too. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Quote: 2 people who heard the broadcast live complained about it at the time - two. I highly doubt that, but you obviously know it to be fact. Link to post Share on other sites
2pints-mate 0 Posted October 30, 2008 Author Share Posted October 30, 2008 In related important news: Quote: DISGRACED Russell Brand yelled "Que" as he romped with the granddaughter of Manuel actor Andrew Sachs, it was revealed yesterday. But Georgina Baillie, 23, said that despite his ladies’ man reputation, he was a DISAPPOINTMENT in bed. Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Originally Posted By: BagOfCrisps Quote: 2 people who heard the broadcast live complained about it at the time - two. I highly doubt that, but you obviously know it to be fact. Only two complaints were made following the actual Radio 2 broadcast, said the source, with the majority coming after the Mail on Sunday's front-page story and the subsequent media coverage. from the Guardian. also Guardian As scoops go, the Brand and Ross phone prank row had a rather undramatic birth. Mail on Sunday reporter Miles Goslett was simply, as millions do, listening to the Russell Brand show on Radio 2. Having noted the somewhat risque nature of the call Brand and his guest Jonathan Ross made to Andrew Sachs's answerphone and the subsequent phone calls, Goslett waited to see how the papers would follow the story. He waited several days before putting calls in to Sachs's agent. It seems it was not until the Mail on Sunday asked how Sachs felt about the now notorious line "he **** your granddaughter", that the actor's agent, Meg Pool, was alerted to the broadcast. Reports from inside the BBC yesterday, however, suggested that Sachs had "reluctantly" approved broadcast of at least some version of the phone call. Still, according to sources at the Mail on Sunday, Goslett could not believe his luck. Was no one else listening? Or did no one else think it was a story? Put another way, how did an incident that occurred 14 days ago and which no one appeared to have noticed for over a week, claim the scalp of one of the country's highest profile presenters, leave the future of another hanging in the balance, while at the same time reigniting the debate over the purpose of the BBC? Only because of one reporter from the Mail on sunday, did this become what it has, had he not heard the live broadcast and then perservered with the story for a week, we wouldnt be discussing this now. Undone by a tabloid hack scrounging for story that turned out to be gold, funny old world. Well if Rosses show is done and he is sacked, then at least he went out with a great guest last week: Tony Curtis Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 My reading of this is that its basically a storm in a teacup, but has been picked up by anyone (mainly the usual conservative elements) who thinks that the BBC pay Ross too much money. That is the real driving force behind it. For the politicians, its just a useful distraction to all the recession talk from Mervyn King last week and house prices being down 15%. Most of the same conservative people barely know who Brand is, let alone listen to his show or have an opinion on him. FWIW I don't think he's very funny. Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 Mr Wiggles - nail > head > hit. I was reading that Brand was the sideshow to the main attraction - Ross. Had it been Brand and some unknown doing it, it wouldn't have been news. The fact that it was Ross as well got the media in a frenzy to slash away at 'tall poppy' #1 at the BBC. I myself had to rack my brains about who Brand was, I had only ever seen him once: the end of year quiz show special, and I thought he was a weirdo at the time. Link to post Share on other sites
2pints-mate 0 Posted October 31, 2008 Author Share Posted October 31, 2008 He's not funny at all. I caught a glance of him presenting the VMA MTV awards. Very sad. The Americans didn't seem to know how quite to take him (even more than us lot!) Link to post Share on other sites
Gloria Hunniford 0 Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 It is now higher up the news than the economy. I bet some people are "phoning in" somewhere to complain about that! Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 Gloria, what do you think? should they be sacked or just imprisoned? / Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 1.3 million quid it cost Ross. It's on Youtube somewhere if you're interested in hearing Link to post Share on other sites
veronica 2 Posted November 5, 2008 Share Posted November 5, 2008 Just seen a few clips of this guy. Hmmmm, not funny at all. Difficult to see him be popular in the States, but you never know I suppose. Link to post Share on other sites
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