Brown weighs into Ross and Brand

Published on Tuesday 28 October 2008 21:03

GORDON Brown stepped into the growing row over Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand's offensive on-air calls to an actor yesterday, amid a barrage of complaints about the stars' behaviour.

The Prime Minister's intervention came after the BBC received 10,000 complaints over the messages the pair left on Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs' answering machine, laden with sexual references to his granddaughter.

The issue became the main item of interest at Downing Street and the Commons.

Taking a break from tackling the global economic crisis to comment on the calls, Mr Brown said: "This is clearly inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour, as is now widely recognised."

With the government media watchdog Ofcom announcing an investigation, it was up to the BBC, the BBC Trust, and Ofcom to take appropriate action, he said.

Earlier, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said the BBC had "very straightforward questions to answer" over why and how it allowed the pre-recorded programme to be broadcast, and who made the decision.

"The BBC needs to be transparent about how it takes decisions and explain its decision-taking process so that everyone can see what more needs to be done."

Ross, paid 6 million annually by the BBC, and Brand telephoned Sachs for an interview arranged with the 78-year-old actor as part of the show.

When he failed to answer, they began to joke in increasingly graphic terms that Brand had slept with Sachs' granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, 23.

Making repeated calls, they suggested Sachs probably had pictures of his grandchildren by the phone, and might kill himself after the lewd messages. Ross, 47, and Brand, 33, have both issued apologies.

A junior BBC producer was tasked to call Sachs before the messages were aired, but another senior BBC figure gave the go-ahead for the broadcast on 18 October, it was reported. Mark Thompson, the BBC's director general, was urged by the Tory MP John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons media select committee, to apologise.

He said: "A senior figure such as Mark Thompson needs to speak out. Particularly in the case of Jonathan Ross; there have been a whole series of incidents where he has breached the rules and I think the BBC needs to think about whether they wish to be in this market still."

Sachs said yesterday that he had not made an official complaint but approved of "the fuss that's been made".

He said it was Ms Baillie – who performs under the stage name Voluptua as a member of the burlesque troop the Satanic Sluts – who was most humiliated, although there are reports she is poised to sell her story.