Brand target of bitterness at BBC

The full scale of the management breakdown at Radio 2 began to emerge yesterday, as a traumatic week for the BBC ended with internal recriminations about the basic failure to follow editorial guidelines.

The chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, said that neither he nor the director-general, Mark Thompson, knew about the lewd phone calls made by the Radio 2 presenters Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross until they read about the row in last Sunday’s newspapers, eight days after the original broadcast.

Sir Michael suggested that the failure of managers to inform him and Mr Thompson of the matter was a reason why Radio 2’s controller, Lesley Douglas, had quit. He said: “That is itself an issue, of which I’m absolutely clear, and that is why people have acknowledged their responsibility in that failing.”

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He added: “What this incident shows is that there are still areas of the BBC where editorial responsibilities are not being taken seriously enough and they must be reinforced.”

The BBC initially tried to play down the anger provoked when Brand and Ross left messages on the answeringmachine of the former Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, 78, in which they said Brand had slept with his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, 23.

A realisation that the furore could not be “sat out” – coupled to the findings of an investigation into the Radio 2 management failings which allowed two combustible presenters to work together without adequate checks – meant that the controller had to go.

The Radio 2 DJ Paul Gambaccini said the resignation of Douglas – one of the most powerful figures in British broadcasting and popular music – was a “tragedy Greek in its dimensions”, but that she had placed naïve faith in Russell Brand, a former drug addict whose career had been scored by controversy. Gambaccini said Douglas treated Brand as her “pet”, such was her admiration of him. “Lesley had a commitment to Russell which was almost obsessive,” he added. “She believed that Russell Brand’s hire was a good thing for Radio 2 and she stood by him thick and thin even while he was alienating almost everybody else.”

Ms Douglas “let him get away with so many outrageous things, about a dozen items that will make [your] hair curl on end”, said Gambaccini.

In January this year, Brand stood in the middle of a recording studio and urinated into a cup – to the disgust of a technician, who complained that he was doing so near banks of electrical equipment. A Radio 2 spokeswoman admitted Brand had thrown nuts at a window in a subsequent outburst but laughed off the incident, saying: “Russell did urinate in a cup and someone has shown him where the toilet is.”

Gambaccini added: “I knew this would end in tears because it could only end in tears. When you pick up a time bomb, one day it will explode because that’s what time bombs do.”

Speaking to The Independent, Gambaccini would not elaborate on Brand’s behaviour but said: “This is not a vendetta and I’m not standing here saying, ‘J’accuse’. There will always be comedy, there will always be people stretching the boundaries, but what they cannot do is break the law.”

Brand resigned from the BBC on Wednesday. His co-host Ross, the corporation’s highest-paid talent, with a three-year contract worth £18m, was suspended on Thursday for three months without pay. Yesterday, Ross was in effect subjected to a television blackout after he agreed to withdraw

from his customary role presenting the British Comedy Awards on ITV, for which he would have reportedly pocketed about £100,000. This year would have been his 17th as host. ITV insisted the decision was mutual.

Last night, Ross tried to put the issue to one side as he hosted a Halloween party at his home in north London.

A spokeswoman for Radio 2 said the station was declining to comment on the remarks from Sir Michael or Gambaccini.

Some of Brand’s fans are planning to picket the Daily Mail today, which has been particularly critical of the incident. A Facebook group to organise the protest outside the newspaper offices and those of Radio 2 argued that “media hype manipulated readers to think the worst of a minor incident”.

Tumbleweed moments: Confessions of comedians who went too far

*Jo Brand

"One of the worst faux pas I've ever made was about a decade ago at a pro-choice benefit gig at a comedy club in Finsbury Park, north London. I told a joke about how my boyfriend very insensitively bought me a bag of jelly babies after I'd had a termination. I was up in front of about 300 people, but I'm afraid the joke was met by complete silence and then a lot of staring, as if I should be executed. That was the end of me for that evening."

*Alexei Sayle

"In about 1980, I used to play at a place called the Elgin pub, in Ladbroke Grove, west London. Occasionally, I used to take a gun on stage with me and point it at the audience. The people there didn't seem to mind, it didn't bother them. But then I tried it in front of a much larger audience at the Comedy Store, and they were frightened and didn't like it very much. Nobody walked out or anything like that, but absolutely no one laughed."

*Jimmy Carr

"I don't think I've ever gone too far, and I've never gone on stage and said anything I regretted. I've never apologised for a joke. I think both Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand are national institutions, and I genuinely think it's an awful thing that Jonathan isn't on television this week. If you take these kind of jokes and write them down then of course it looks bizarre. It hasn't got any of the performance or the intention, the knowing smile afterwards."