Has everyone forgotten Jonathan Ross and Sachsgate?

Never liked him before, but can't bear to watch him ever since that phone call. It wasn't just a bad taste joke, it was a nasty bullying derogatory phone call that dropped a bomb into a family relationship. And twenty years ago wasn't prehistoric. It was shocking behaviour then. I honestly don't know how anyone who remembers the phone call can watch him without recoiling.

I am in no way condoning JR. I thought that phone call was ridiculous.

But I will say what I said at the time. To the best of my knowledge his show wasn't live, so my understanding is that phonecall could have been cut, or the whole show pulled.

If that is correct then someone other than them passed it for broadcast. Whoever that was is just as culpable.

How can we TRUTHFULLY know what or wasn't said in the toilets that night? The violence was despicable but I believe Cheryl complied with punishment(s) set out by the court and has moved on with her life.

Should everyone who gets involved in a scuffle on a night out be banned from working for life? That'd be a heck of a lot of UC to be paid out!

What did he say to Michelle Pfeiffer? She seems to have been on his shows a few times, when was it?

Paul Ross is talentless and sleazy, I’ll give you that one.

Thank you OP for reminding me why I dislike him so much.

If We’re going to judge JR for his actions and his friendship with RB. Surely it’s only fair that we also judge Andrew Sachs for his refusal to speak to his granddaughter after the incident and his friendship with John Cleese who is hardly a nice man.

and surely we should talk about the character of Manuel and how it is extremely derogatory to Spanish people, which Andrew sachs was not? Not sure that would fly today.

see? We can twist just about any narrative to make it fit our world view if we want to.

personally I think RB is an awful human being, John Cleese is also a dick, Jonathan Ross and Andrew Sachs I can’t really bring myself to care about much either way.

I remember it, and mention it about Ross at times if others don’t seem to - though it hardly comes up regularly. I did mention it when more stuff came out about Brand, but it has sort of paled for him with the rest of his vile behaviour.
I thought Ross got away with it more at the time, ie got back to TV faster, as he apologised and Brand didn’t.
Still it was a disgraceful thing to do and I don’t know why anyone wanted to keep watching him or employing him in his roles, not so much now as I don’t think what he did 20 years ago should necessarily be held against him but how he kept going and getting better and better gigs after a very brief spell off air - like he’d been caught shoplifting or smoked a joint or something. He just should have had to stay off screen or very minor stuff in my opinion.
I hear ‘it was different back then’ but it was the 21st century not the 1950s or even 1980s - we expected better by that time, and if we look back and think we didn’t as an excuse for this sort of thing it will never end.
I didn’t know his wife was so young, seems he is just a genuine sleazebag with more chances than many to act on it - great - we can look back in 20 years time and say oh it was different in the 2020s I guess 🤢

I think of this every time I see him, op. Some people just get away with awful things.

It happened, it wasn’t nice, he apologised, and I’m sure he regrets it.

What do you want to happen? Prison? Him to walk the streets self-flagellating to atone for his sins?

Shit happens and people make mistakes.

He isn't good with paperwork. He likes old cars. That's all I know about him.

Oh the saintly haters are not going to let the truth stand in the way of their nastiness

It wasn’t on tv. Live or otherwise.
it was a pre-recorded radio show.

I don't like him because he is clearly a sexist knobend. He shows it very openly in his shows and I find his humour childish and rude. You can try to gaslight me that he is an angel but I will use my life experience to know misogynistic behaviour when I see it broadcast to the country.

Calling out lies is not the same as shutting women (or men for that matter) up.

Yeah, life goes on. He did something stupid and unpleasant a few years ago, which garnered some truly hysterical overreactions, nicely inflamed by those sections of the press that enjoy moral high-ground type feeding frenzies on celebrities. I wasn't very impressed by what he did at the time, but it was all very overhyped imo. I haven't seen a repetition of that behaviour, so I got over it. I quite like JR's TV personality; he's entertaining, and I think he's pretty good value in Traitors (although surely he must get rumbled soon).

I really can't be arsed with this, condemn for all time attitude for people I don't know personally tbh, (I make an exception for the sex pests), for a start, I could never keep track of all of the dickhead celebrity behaviour over the years.

Stephen Fry, on the other hand, is both dull and overpimped by everyone in there. I really find their weird, awestruck treatment of him quite odd. I really don't see any evidence of his much vaunted massive brain; he's just got a posh accent with a good memory and a tendency to drop quotes from the classics. I have yet to see any original thought from him tbh.

You're the one defending a stranger on your Sat night despite hundreds of women saying they don't like him while you try to shut them all up.

I’d rather defend someone than make up baseless shit. He made the phone call. We all agree it was appalling. That is pretty much the only fact.

You can almost hear the salivating at calling him a pervert, making up memories of how he was awful to Charlotte Church, that he didn’t apologise to Georgina, that it was on live TV, that Sachs was a holocaust survivor (he wasn’t), that he was ‘almost 30’ when he met his wife. All untrue.

Completely agree! What does he have over tv producers to keep giving him prime tv roles?!

See - quite the nasty little prick back then!

Russell Howard pushed in front of me in a queue once and then proceeded to speak VERY loudly so that everyone knew who he was.

It may have been over 15 years ago but I also don't forget!

Noo I mean Russell Howard! Some of his old stand up was shockingly sexist and nasty to women!

If he can rebrand, so can Jonathan Ross tbh

Yes it is. So there isn’t any need to try and make it sound bigger by saying he was ‘almost 30’. By that logic she was ‘almost 20’. It doesn’t make sense

But the woman maintained that she racially abused her, along with violently attacking her because she tried to stop her stealing the lollipops she was selling

This isnt the same as the JR thing at all and is disgusting

Nearly 20 years later?🤯

I doubt it.

I've always found him revolting and creepy, and no, I haven't forgotten.