Andrew Sachs

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'No justification' for Brand show

Lewd calls to actor Andrew Sachs were a "deplorable intrusion with no editorial justification", the BBC Trust says.

BBC Trust criticises Jonathan Ross over lewd comment to Gwyneth Paltrow

The BBC Trust today criticised a further incident of bad language involving Jonathan Ross, but said his three month suspension without pay was adequate punishment for the "Sachsgate" scandal.In its final report on the row that engulfed the BBC last month, and which led to the resignation of two Radio 2 executives and comedian Russell Brand, the trust also said that BBC management should investigate another incident involving Brand on Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles' show.The trust said bad language in an episode of Ross's pre-recorded BBC1 chatshow, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, in which the presenter told Hollywood actor Gwyneth Paltrow he "would fuck her" was "gratuitous and unnecessarily offensive". BBC management had originally reviewed the show, broadcast in May this year, and cleared it for broadcast.However, the trust today said it disagreed with that judgment, adding that the comment was made in an "overly sexual way" and that it had upheld a number of complaints made about the edition of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.The trust also asked BBC management to investigate comments that Brand made on Moyles's show about dancer Georgina Baillie, who became embroiled in the Sachsgate affair after Ross and Brand left lewd messages about her on her grandfather Andrew Sachs' answerphone.Moyles and Brand had a conversation live on Radio 1 at 8.23am on October 21, three days after the offensive messages were broadcast on Radio 2 - but before the Sachsgate affair had blown up into a major crisis for the BBC.Brand told Moyles he had met Baillie and said he had "met her brains out".BBC trustee Richard Tait said today that the trust had taken the view that the comment was referring to Baillie's private life.The trust said it was down to BBC management to decide if any further sanctions were necessary over this incident.In its report on the Sachsgate row, the trust said the calls made to Sachs were "grossly offensive" and that there was no justification for broadcasting them.The trust added that the material broadcast on Brand's Radio 2 show on Saturday October 18 was a "deplorable intrusion" into the private lives of Sachs and Baillie. There was no "editorial justification" and no "informed consent obtained" for airing the messages, the trust added.Tait said there had been three failures by BBC management over the decision to broadcast the pre-recorded messages - failure to exercise editorial control, to follow established compliance systems and a failure of judgment in taking editorial decisions. But he added the trust considered the BBC's response to the controversy to be appropriate. The BBC Trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, said the corporation's regulatory and governance body would not be taking any further action against Ross."We have underlined very clearly that it is not the job of the trust to make decisions about the terms and conditions of performers or the sanctions that are applied to them when they are found to be wanting," Lyons added."We are very clear that the director general has taken the right action with respect to Jonathan Ross," he said."The common issue is not who the performers are. The common issue is editorial failings ... the failings here are in the role of the BBC as the publisher of the material."Lyons said that the offending material transmitted on Brand's Radio 2 show should not have been recorded in the first instance and in the BBC Trust's view should then have been edited out before the broadcast. "The failings we have discussed this morning are serious but they are being addressed," he added.Lyons said that the BBC "needs to learn some lessons" but it usually got it right. He described it as a "disappointing and dismal episode", but said the director general, Mark Thompson, and his team had responded constructively.Lyons also said it was "not rocket science" to have predicted that putting Ross in the same studio as Brand could lead to trouble. "You could have predicted a risky situation," he added.· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".Russell BrandJonathan RossBBCTelevisionGwyneth PaltrowRadioguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

BBC: Jonathan Ross to escape punishment over Andrew Sachs telephone calls

Jonathan Ross is expected to escape further punishment today when the BBC Trust releases its report on the lewd phone calls he and Russell Brand made to the Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

Andrew Sachs 'to appear in Coronation Street'

Andrew Sachs could be taking to our television screens once again as one of the cast of Coronation Street.

Russell Brand: We cut the really bad stuff

Russell Brand has revealed that the recording of the obscene messages left on the answering machine of the Fawlty Towers' actor Andrew Sachs had been toned down before it was aired.In an interview with the Observer Magazine, the first time that he has spoken at length about the events that led to his recent resignation from the BBC, Brand says: 'We took out the more personal stuff.' The comedian, who is now in Los Angeles, says he also believed Sachs had approved the contents of the pre-recorded radio show: 'The thing was, we were told that Andrew Sachs had okayed it.' He goes on to explain that he and his guest, Jonathan Ross, had been reassured by the fact that the 25-year-old independent producer of the programme had spoken to Sachs and agreed to edit out the lewdest sections of dialogue, which concerned Brand's sexual encounter with Sachs's 23-year-old granddaughter. 'The grey area is that our brilliant young producer, Nic Philps, called Andrew Sachs afterwards and said, "Is it OK? Can we use it? Do you mind?" And he said, "Oh yeah, but can you tone it down a bit?" So we did. We took out the more personal stuff.'Brand says neither he nor Ross would have behaved in the same way on a live show. 'Because it was a pre-record situation, it was a little bit more loose.'Some radio sources have suggested that not all of the series of offensive messages, aired on Brand's show, were left on Sachs's answering machine, but were recorded separately. The BBC said it could not confirm or deny this claim.Yesterday, the corporation broadcast an extended apology on Radio 2, but refused to comment on the findings of its continuing internal inquiry. Meg Poole, Sachs's agent, was interviewed in private at length by BBC executives on Tuesday and has received no further word from the corporation. It was Poole who first played a recording of the offending show to Sachs after the broadcast and then wrote a complaint to the BBC on his behalf. 'Andrew was surprised by the length of the broadcast,' she told The Observer last week. 'He said to me he had thought they were not going to run it.' Yesterday's Radio 2 apology said: 'On 18 October, the BBC broadcast an exchange between Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on the Russell Brand show on Radio 2. This concerned the actor Andrew Sachs and his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. Some of this exchange was left on the voicemail of Mr Sachs. The conversation was grossly offensive and an unacceptable intrusion into the private lives of both Mr Sachs and Ms Baillie.'Brand argues this weekend that he had no 'malicious intent': 'It was like an evolving, rolling thing. If you listen, I say "sorry" more than I say anything offensive. The message is mostly an apology. In fact, it is the acknowledgement of how wrong it was that is the source of the comedy.' The comedian and actor, who is to appear alongside Adam Sandler in the forthcoming Disney film Bedtime Stories, to be released on Boxing Day, and who has been cast as Johnny Depp's brother in the next Pirates of the Caribbean film, said that he accepted full responsibility for doing something 'daft'. 'What's difficult about the whole thing is that it was completely devoid of malice and there's been a retrospective application of cruelty and intention to cause offence,' he said. Brand has resigned from the BBC, while Ross has been suspended without pay for three months. Brand also tells the magazine he will not let the incident change his style of humour: 'I can't let it change what I do, other than when I make a programme have an editor look at all aspects of it, to see if it will offend on a personal level.'He denies the allegation made by fellow Radio 2 presenter Paul Gambaccini that he had sacked a series of producers on the show.In a documentary about the events, to be broadcast on Wednesday evening on Channel Five, Baillie, a burlesque dancer, will say that she regrets the impact of the incident on the careers of Brand and Ross.Russell BrandJonathan RossBBCRadioguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Andrew Sachs 'would consider' going on Jonathan Ross show

The Fawlty Towers actor could be a guest on Ross's show when the presenter is allowed to return to work.

BBC prank calls 'indefensible'

Former chat show host Sir Michael Parkinson says Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand's calls to actor Andrew Sachs were "indefensible".

Performers fear 'safety first' will lead to exodus of talent as programme makers feel the chill

Fears are growing among performers that the BBC will become too risk-averse in the wake of this week's furore over Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, as the backlash against the departure of the Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas also swelled yesterday. Some fear there will be an inevitable "chilling" effect despite attempts by the BBC Trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, to quell worries that its looming review of editorial guidelines and a management clampdown on "high-risk" areas would have an adverse effect on its output. Dara O'Briain, the comedian who hosts a BBC2 show that became a minor player in the drama when newspapers picked up on a rude joke about the Queen made by one of the Mock the Week panellists, said the corporation should not clamp down on risky comedy. "We are now entering day six of man-has-his-feelings-hurt-gate. I stand by 100% any of the things we've ever said," he said. "There's no way we can ever do a show while thinking 'Will David Davis MP approve of this?' Not all shows are intended for all people."The controversy was sparked when Brand and Ross left a series of lewd messages on the answer machine of actor Andrew Sachs. When the Mail on Sunday picked up the story a week later, it resulted in 37,500 complaints, an Ofcom investigation, a three-month unpaid suspension for Ross, and the resignations of Douglas and Brand. The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, attempted to wrest back control of the spiralling crisis on Thursday by suspending Ross and announcing the resignation of Douglas. He will deliver a full review on November 20 to the BBC Trust, which said it was "dismayed" and ordered an overhaul of editorial and compliance controls in BBC radio. Ross will not return to the screen until next January, losing £1.3m in pay, and some BBC insiders questioned whether he could return to his Radio 2 slot at all, given his part in Douglas's downfall. It was announced that he would not host the British Comedy Awards on ITV in December during his suspension from the BBC. He has special dispensation in his £6m a year contract to present the awards. A spokesman for Ross said: "He would not want his participation in this year's event to take away from the awards themselves." Some BBC executives said that compliance procedures had already become more onerous in the wake of last year's scandals over faked competitions and that new systems would inevitably mean erring on the side of caution. Comedian Jimmy Carr, who has worked for both the BBC and Channel 4, said the furore was "a storm in a teacup" and said there was a "silent majority" who didn't believe Ross' punishment fitted the crime. "Being on TV at the moment is like being at school and getting told off all the time," he said. Lyons, who has faced criticism for not acting publicly quickly enough, said: "What this incident shows is that there are still areas of the BBC where the editorial responsibilities are not being taken seriously enough and they need to be reinforced." The departure of Douglas, the Radio 2 and 6 Music controller who brought the curtain down on a 23-year BBC career after saying she ought to carry the can for mistakes made "on my watch", was widely lamented. DJs including Terry Wogan and Chris Evans have spoken of their sadness at her decision to resign. "I just hope that at least her sacrifice will bring everything back down to earth a little bit and will give a sense of proportion," Wogan told BBC News. Brand, who resigned on Wednesday in a failed effort to take responsibility for the scandal, said of Douglas's decision: "I think it's really sad and I am upset." Asked if he felt responsible for her departure he quipped: "I do. I wish I could resign twice but I'm not Peter Mandelson." Douglas could re-emerge in the music industry, where she was considered one of the most powerful and passionate figures in breaking British acts to mainstream audiences. Christian O'Connell, the breakfast DJ on Absolute Radio, said: "I think it's a terrible over-reaction. I know how well respected Lesley is across the industry. I know I will [be more risk-averse]. If you're a producer at the BBC right now, you're not going to be taking any chances." But others said that Douglas was undone by her determination to give Brand a slot on the station, seen by some as one step too far in her policy of bringing in younger audiences and wooing key television talent. "The analogy I make is: Achilles, great body - shame about the heel," broadcaster Paul Gambaccini said. "She had all of these amazing qualities and wonderful abilities - but she had this one obsession that proved to be her downfall." John Lloyd, the producer of Spitting Image who is also behind the Stephen Fry-fronted panel show QI, said he hoped the incident led to a reappraisal of how risk- taking television was defined. "What passes for risk-taking in television today is showing people having sex on Big Brother. That's not a risk - it's just grubby," he said.BBCComedyTelevisionRadioTelevisionRadioJonathan RossRussell Brandguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds