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Original poster

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

363 replies

Channel4er · 17/09/2023 19:03

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
11
WhalePolo · 18/09/2023 15:41

@goldenrachita

Just wondering if you can explain this to me.

RB has used his media platform to make criminal accusations about scientists.

These women are using a media platform to make criminal accusations about RB.

Why is one ‘ok’ and one not?

Why is free speech ‘ok’ for RB - yet not for the women who want to speak out about abuse?

Cosmic36 · 18/09/2023 15:46

Brands empty headed fans bleat that he tells "the truth" and that he's "a threat to the establishment".
Total and utter dimwits. There's many more YouTubers with far more millions upon millions of followers than him, and he is far from the first to jump on the anti media train. In fact, he's been late to to the anti woke party. Nothing he comes out with hasn't already been said.
He’s nowhere near as important as his fans make him out to be.
As a side note, he’s always been scientifically illiterate, and it’s not like he has a stellar reputation. Far from it.
What is this “truth" he's spoken that no one has said before for years?
No one seems to be able to give an answer that holds up under scrutiny. They just bleat the same BS, over and over, without any thought whatsover.
I can’t think of anything new he’s thought up, that hasn't been said before.
Essentially, all those arguments from his blinkered and not so bright fans are nothing other than a load of noise. The fact is, it’s been an open secret he’s a sexual predator for many years now.
Regardless of what anyone thinks, as I’ve already pointed out, he has every opportunity to sue for libel, and let the evidence speak for itself in court, whatever the outcome may be. I suspect it won't go well for him, given the evidence, and The Times, The Sunday Times & Dispatches would've gone over the evidence - the report from the rape crisis centre, along with the text message exchange - with a fine-tooth comb. They're not going to leave themselves open for Libel. They're not The Sun.
I see no issue with him fighting out in court at all.

cakehoover123 · 18/09/2023 15:53

Thank you @Channel4er for the thread, good of you to do this, and interesting to hear about the distinction between the prodco and C4. Hopefully some institutional lessons will be learned.

SequentialAnalyst · 18/09/2023 16:05

Goateen · 18/09/2023 13:10

I thought of putting "black" features, but it didn't seem quite right. "negroid" was the only quasi-technical alternative term that sprang to mind as I was writing the post.

@SequentialAnalyst

It's got nothing to do with 'negroid features'. There are lots of beautiful black and mixed race women. Jade was unattractive, that's a more fitting word. And very bitter towards Shilpa.

Her face was more like her father's face then her mother's face.

was what I would have put, if I had had the time to think things through mid-post ConfusedBrewBrew

And I would never call her unattractive. The press were happy to call her ugly, thoughHmm

savingherlife · 18/09/2023 17:40

Channel4er · 18/09/2023 08:37

Thanks so much. I'm going to step away from the thread now as some people seem incredibly excised that I started it.

As I explained upthread I did so because I think culture matters. A lot. Whether that's in hospitals, the police or the entertainment industry. And its as important now as it was back then. Do people genuinely feel they can speak up? What happens if they do? How do you create a culture that ensures no one is taken advantage of?

For those doubting whether I worked there, I offered earlier to share a copy of my contract with MNHQ, or if the PP who was a press officer there wants to DM I can share the names of people running or working in all the key departments at the time from press to marketing, research to legal, 4Creative to 4OD as it was. I can also share the name of the legendary guy who still pushed the trolley round every afternoon selling snacks. It was Mo if you're interested.

Someone rather aggressively stated that I could be anyone from the cleaner to the person running the channel. Who do you think saw more?

I was middle management, I don't claim to speak for everyone's experience but I thought it might offer some perspective for people who haven't worked in media. Channel 4 is a headline name that has appeared numerous times in the press and in social media over the last few days. I don't claim to state definitively whether they or Endemol or anyone else is culpable but I am able to help explain the relationship between production companies and the channel and to share a little about what it was like working there at the time.

It will be easy for Channel 4 now to say things have changed. That's always what happens, they will say it was a different era, that the people there at the time have moved on and the new regime assure everyone it would never happen today. But it wasn't that long ago and a lot of the people around at the time are now in senior roles elsewhere.

Anyway, I hope lessons really are learned.

Show quote history

Mo! Trolley time! Happy days

Original poster
Channel4er · 18/09/2023 17:47

@savingherlife indeed TROLLEY TIME!!! Best mid afternoon wake up ever. I don't get that WFH.

At least you can assure the doubters I was there.

OP posts:
DaisyDreaming · 18/09/2023 17:56

I found your posts interesting and informative thank you.

oioicheeky · 18/09/2023 18:22

SequentialAnalyst · 17/09/2023 21:59

Do you mean the Jade Goody so-called racism thing?

I am an academic in the field of Conversation Analysis (retired), and at the time watched Big Brother avidly. Jade had been invited back.

The other lady had cooked a chicken, and it had come out sort of grilled, and still raw. The oven was electric, with mysterious symbols instead of words. My theory is this: She thought she was cooking the chicken on the oven setting, when actually she had turned the grill on by mistake. I knew this was possible, because I had actually made the same mistake myself with my own similar oven when I first had an electric one (prefer gas).

Jade then got rather annoyed at being served pink chicken. She definitely went too far, however I still think everything led from a simple mistake made by someone who had never used an oven with those markings before.

Edited

That's entirely obvious, and always was.

The issue was "Shilpa fucking poppadom" and other such comments.

It was very racist.

savingherlife · 18/09/2023 19:33

Channel4er · 18/09/2023 17:47

@savingherlife indeed TROLLEY TIME!!! Best mid afternoon wake up ever. I don't get that WFH.

At least you can assure the doubters I was there.

Certainly can. I was there too, just in a different department from what it sounds like.

SequentialAnalyst · 18/09/2023 19:42

@oioicheeky
Yes she was racist. But probably not towards Afro-Carribean people.

I'll bet you anything, she was prejudiced against many groups of people. I just think she was treated very harshly for the entertainment of the masses, and the making of money.

oioicheeky · 18/09/2023 19:58

SequentialAnalyst · 18/09/2023 19:42

@oioicheeky
Yes she was racist. But probably not towards Afro-Carribean people.

I'll bet you anything, she was prejudiced against many groups of people. I just think she was treated very harshly for the entertainment of the masses, and the making of money.

@SequentialAnalyst You've lost me.

I don't understand the relevance of Afro-Caribbean people.

There was a group of girls in the Celebrity Big Brother house (Jade Goody being one of them, but certainly not the worst) who were involved in racist bullying towards Shilpa Shetty, who is Indian.

The chicken was a red herring, it was nothing to do with the chicken. The bullying went far further than that.

CherryMaDeara · 18/09/2023 20:01

WhalePolo · 18/09/2023 15:41

@goldenrachita

Just wondering if you can explain this to me.

RB has used his media platform to make criminal accusations about scientists.

These women are using a media platform to make criminal accusations about RB.

Why is one ‘ok’ and one not?

Why is free speech ‘ok’ for RB - yet not for the women who want to speak out about abuse?

👏👏👏👏👏👏

SurprisedWithAHorse · 18/09/2023 20:02

The BB race row was really at heart more of a class thing. Shilpa was far more elegant, accomplished and well mannered than Jade, Danielle and Jo (and more beautiful) and they thought she was spoilt and stuck up (she wasn't, obviously). They then weaponised her ethnicity against her although that wasn't what actually pissed them off about her.

Still a form of racism and completely unacceptable, of course. But actually, her being Indian wasn't what they disliked about her.

Edited to clarify that it isn't odd that they shouldn't dislike her being Indian. I meant it was odd that they used racist abuse since their nastiness wasn't actually motivated by racism.

NeedToThinkOfOne · 18/09/2023 20:20

Channel4er · 18/09/2023 17:47

@savingherlife indeed TROLLEY TIME!!! Best mid afternoon wake up ever. I don't get that WFH.

At least you can assure the doubters I was there.

You stepped away when people were discussing the very thing you said AMA about. Maybe start a new thread to reminisce about how much of a treat the trolley was, as it seems a bit inappropriate on here, considering the original subject you were up for discussing 🤷‍♀️

PetuniaT · 18/09/2023 20:44

Will it stand up in court?

Mammajay · 18/09/2023 20:46

Upsizer mentioned Chris Evans. I remember reading that held held meetings in the morning at work. He had come out of a shower and would wear a bathrobe which he deliberately left gaping open. How revolting a sight that must have been!

Willmafrockfit · 18/09/2023 21:01

loved Sean lock

CherryMaDeara · 18/09/2023 21:03

Lalgarh · 18/09/2023 20:55

Sean Lock in 2014

RIP

Funny how Jimmy Carr stayed oddly silent whilst Sean Lock blasted RB.

SequentialAnalyst · 18/09/2023 21:11

oioicheeky · 18/09/2023 19:58

@SequentialAnalyst You've lost me.

I don't understand the relevance of Afro-Caribbean people.

There was a group of girls in the Celebrity Big Brother house (Jade Goody being one of them, but certainly not the worst) who were involved in racist bullying towards Shilpa Shetty, who is Indian.

The chicken was a red herring, it was nothing to do with the chicken. The bullying went far further than that.

Show quote history

Her father was Afro-Carribbean, Jamaican in fact. If you read all my posts about Jade on this thread, you should be able to follow my line of reasoning.

Anyway, I think I've covered everything I wanted to say, and replied to those who did not like the way I worded my first post. I'll be off to The Litter Tray now, I'm behind on reading one of the threads I'm on BrewBrew

SurprisedWithAHorse · 18/09/2023 21:13

CherryMaDeara · 18/09/2023 21:03

Funny how Jimmy Carr stayed oddly silent whilst Sean Lock blasted RB.

Show quote history

Jimmy Carr is a tax dodging prick who's made a career out of getting people to think a white man telling sexist and racist jokes is somehow not something we've seen every day for 500 years.

KatsWhiskas · 18/09/2023 21:14

Sorry, what does AMA mean...?

Spaghettihulahoops · 18/09/2023 21:16

@KatsWhiskas ask me anything (or on this case ask me what I want to talk about)

Mtlso · 18/09/2023 21:28

Was there a massive drugs culture like there was at the Beeb? Every time I saw a certain lady with the surname of Cotton, she was openly snorting coke off her finger. Execs said nothing.

FreshAirForwards · 18/09/2023 21:35

One of our L6th (16 years old) boarders was pictured in the News of The World coming out of Brand’s home at silly o’clock on a Saturday morning one leave weekend.
She was extraordinarily immature and certainly wouldn’t have been able to see past his fame. Consensual or not, it made my skin crawl. Her housemistress sat her down and had a frank conversation about safe sex etc and made it clear that he would not be allowed on site without express permission from her parents as a named adult. I wonder now if she is one of the complainants. It was certainly raised as a safeguarding concern at the time as she was a member of our student body.

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