I worked at Channel 4 during the Russell Brand era. Ask me anything

[Channel4er]

I've thought long and hard about whether do do this AMA because people will probably be after salacious titbits which I neither have nor am interested in however there's been a lot of talk about Channel 4's role in the Brand affair and I thought I might be able to shed some light on what the culture at Channel 4 was actually like around that time.

In order to remain anonymous there may be some questions I can't answer. I've name changed but am a long standing MNer.

@CherryMaDeara

I didn't say I didn't believe them I said I don't doubt them. I said I felt sorry for everyone involved.

As yet it's not been to trial so no verdict has been reached.

I'm not judging or saying I don't believe anyone involved because at this point not everything has been disclosed has it.

Jesus talk about a witchhunt...if someone has been raped, then now is the time for the police to be involved. However it is still speculation and absolutely a trial by media. I actually find it terrible that a documentary can be made like this, with absolutely no way for RB to defend himself.

Unfortunately the OP has left, and doesn’t want anyone to ‘ama’ anymore. Did they work in C4 during the ‘era’ stated, or perhaps they are still there now, having put a fire into this thread and then left it to others to keep pouring legacy C4 talent and shows onto the flames.

Perhaps if you care so much OP, you can be responsible and ask for this thread to be pulled down?

legacy C4 talent?

Another RB fangirl.

Oh dear @CherryMaDeara you’re so quick to jump on that you don’t even bother reading posts properly. I’m talking about the other c4 talent being discussed on here who are nothing to do with the Dispatches allegations. How petty you are calling anyone who seems to be posting sensible comments a RB fangirl? Perhaps we’re fan (girls) of the justice system?

Anyone who has worked in the entertainment industry and kept their eyes open can confirm the OP's point that there are always some individuals- usually of third rate ability but popular with undiscriminating sections of the public- who use that popularity and the weakness of management to get away with things that a) other people don't, and in some cases, also b) things which (even if legal) nobody ought to get away with.
The best actors/whatever don't do this sort of crap, because they are too busy concentrating on doing their jobs to the best of their ability- that's why they are the best. They may be demanding at times, and yes, that can be tiring for the rest of us, but the will only demand things that they want because they will make their work better, not for their own personal greeds and petty little ego trips.

Or maybe people have changed their minds beause they grew up? Or because they or someone they cared about ended up on the receiving end of vile behaviour and they now know how it feels, i.e., not very funny?
For the record, though I was brought up in the permissive 60s, I always thought he was a vulgar little attention seeker of no particular intelligence, the type who thinks it's clever to get laughs by saying 'bum' to the vicar and nasty things about nicer people than themselves. I have a broad sense of humour, and tolerate things many fellow feminists would frown at, which occasionally gets me into arguments, (😐) but Brand was always way beyond acceptable to me even from the start. Whether he is guilty of the present accusations or not, and BTW I think we should always wait for the results of proper investigations before making up our minds on that sort of accusation, his behaviour in many other respects is all of a piece with it, so in his case I would not actually be shocked if it did turn out to be true. Savile, I was not surprised, Harris, I was. You never know. So we do need to wait for more evidence, I think.

It’s not trial by media, it’s extensively researched journalism.

RB could defend himself with a libel action if what is reported is untrue, but that seems unlikely.

Its not as though RB has hidden his behaviour. All that has happened is that journalists have compiled a report and made it public.

But you didn’t say ‘other C4 talent’.

All this talk, but a fair trial is now impossible anyway. Whoever made the Dispatches programme must have known that.

usually of third rate ability but popular with undiscriminating sections of the public

oh and you’re the one to decide are you 😂 typical contempt for audiences from people working in ‘entertainment’. I think that sort of attitude was why people came to dislike the This Morning people so much, I never watched it but even in brief clips you could see they thought their audience were twats

So we do need to wait for more evidence, I think.

As far as criminal allegations go he isn’t about to be marched off to prison without a trial, but it’s years since he had a reputation to lose.

Meanwhile people who didn’t already think he was a d**k head conspiracy theorist won’t change their minds because of something reported in the ‘MSM’.

There wouldn’t have been a programme like that made if there wasn’t a load of evidence to substantiate.

Soz RB fans

@Johannalaw is it true that most Slytherins that go to Oxford end up at Christchurch?

I also worked in TV never an also experienced first hand his unboundaried behaviour. The guy was mental.

Now he's a guru the utter twat. Saying ah sorry but they loved it really. I hope he goes down the creepy fucker.

He had a chance to defend himself in the documentary when they asked his lawyers for the evidence that refuted the claims they said they had. They didn't give it to them.

Completely agree with @LondonLass91

Exactly...

How terrible of his lawyers to want to have any evidence discussed in court, not on a sensational TV programme! This is up there with "he hasn't sued for libel" (1 day later) so ergo he's guilty......

It’s crazy to me that people are saying things like ‘what he says about Covid/calling Ukraine a Nazi country/whatever else is so unique and dangerous they’ve had to shut him up’

what?! Those views about Covid were rife before Covid even hit us. The vaccine stuff has been going round by anti-backers for years and I don’t even want to comment on ‘his’ ideas that we should be fighting Ukraine with Russia. None of this stuff has come from his brain. He just goes online and says it. It doesn’t make him special, it doesn’t make him a truthteller, it doesn’t put a target on his back for ‘The Establishment’. They literally don’t care what Brand is saying. He has a large following for he is influential in that sense, but as far as things go in the grand scheme of it all? No one cares.

These allegations started decades ago. Before he got himself a YouTube channel. They were published years ago in various books and newspapers before his guru-esque makeover. So this idea that he is being taken down of by the big guys just makes no sense - the timeline isn’t possible.

Damned clever of the Dispatches team to not only predict Covid four years ago but also that Brand would devote his YT channel to debunking MSM and political messaging around it and decide to bring him down because of it, at the point they started investigating these allegations.

And to the poster who thinks the OP will be basking in their notoriety now...it's one thread in a fairly niche section of Mumsnet posted under a namechange, she hasn't got a place on Strictly and a column in the Times off the back of it.

Isn't hiding in plain sight, what Saville did?
Not many people came to his defense. He to used humour to cover up his predatory behavior.

Nobody knows if he is guilty of a crime - that is for the courts to decide if they think there is a case to prosecute.

However the argument that Brand has treated women badly and that there is something to investigate has been made largely by Brand himself.

All the investigation has done is follow up the leads.

Whether people agree/disagree with his opinions on anything else won’t be changed by this. Again, he doesn’t have a reputation to lose.

She also describes some stuff which didn’t sound consensual. Whether it would be in the eyes of the law or not who knows but needing to punch a man who is choking you with his penis and then while your upset laying ontop of you dribbling in your mouth and forcing you to swallow while you were already upset and traumatised, hardly the act of true consent. It might not be as quite clear cut as the woman screaming no no get off me as she’s raped against a walk but ffs it’s not ok. The poor 16 year old.

We could say the same about Rolf Harris, he abused a child and went onto become a man who cried over abused animals. Does his caring about animal abuse change his child abuse? Thankfully the courts didn’t think so