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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.

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SisterAgatha · 17/09/2023 21:31

Dadfromthesea · 17/09/2023 19:33

you worked at channel 4? OK then, answer me this… Why does the clock on Countdown have a left hand side?

It won’t be five minutes before the behaviour of an allegedly awful man becomes hijacked so that it’s less about him and more about cherished public institutions like the BBC and Channel 4. You don’t need to help it along. Plus, anecdote doesn’t equal evidence, so anything you have to say on the subject is very limited by the fact that it’s just your experience.

I have always always wondered this about the clock

Mummyoflittledragon · 17/09/2023 21:35

cherubwing · 17/09/2023 21:17

Not directly relevant to Russell Brand but I worked for the BBC in a technical role when I graduated university and the sexual harassment was overwhelming I was given a lift part of the way home by a married senior colleague (he was about 50) in my first week, he pulled into a lay by and expected a BJ, I refused and got upset he then drove in stony silence to the train station and when I got into work the next day I got dragged into production and almost sacked, he's been in early to complain about me and my work ethic/attitude.

The head of my department (an unmarried man in his late 50s) on the programme I worked on pestered me daily to spend time with him outside of work, he kept trying to give me drugs, on a works night out he tried to pick me up and carry me back to his hotel room and when I started screaming he said it was just a joke. Other people saw this and said / did nothing. He also said he would help with my career if I came to London, that I could stay at his house and that doors would open for "fun girls".

When I spoke to the female executive producer I was told that I was easily replaceable but he was not and that I had to have a thick skin to do this job. Very much an attitude of I had to put up with it so you should too. One nice woman, a script editor in her 50's told me that if there was anything I wanted to do instead of film and TV work that I should do that instead.

It wasn't just those two men several men on the crew bullied or sexually harassed me and turned nasty when I didn't do what they wanted and even the nice men, they saw it and did nothing.

At that time one of my parents was very ill and the stress of the harassment and the illness in my family was too much , one day I woke up and knew I just didn't want to do it anymore not if it meant putting up with that kind of abuse for the next 10 years or more. A friend of mine was working on a movie at the same time and was also experiencing bullying and sexual harassment and the more people I spoke the more I learned it was just like that and that often the attitude was that the weak would be weeded out.

So I did walk away and I felt for year like a failure for not being able to take it and my friend who had been working on the film felt the same like a couple of losers but now I am just angry that we had to put up with that treatment as a matter of course, its disgusting and unacceptable. I really hope this being in the news means lots of people come forward to talk about how awful these industries are for women and how places like the BBC and C4 etc close ranks to protect abusive men.

Edited

I’m so sorry. This is so depressing. Men first and foremost always.

Gobacktosleep · 17/09/2023 21:35

In response the poster who mentioned runners picking out girls for him from the audience…

I can confirm this! You’ve jogged a memory. I went to one of his stand up gigs in Reading around 2006 with an ex boyfriend, and at the end of the gig Russell said that any girl that wants to go back stage, raise your hand! I remember him saying something along the lines of ‘you think I’m having a laugh but I’m not joking’ I have no doubt his ‘people’ probably picked some girls out…. My boyfriend at the time was miffed when I jokingly started waving my arm around. I was early 20’s and didn’t appreciate the seediness at the time. Grim

cherubwing · 17/09/2023 21:39

@YouCanGrowYourOwnWhey This all happened in 2003 and I'd graduated the year before.

Highdaysandholidays1 · 17/09/2023 21:39

@cherubwing very disturbing. My husband worked in TV for a while before I met him and he said there was a casting couch for men as well as women and he just couldn't work in that environment (i.e. being sexually available as a way to get on). Similar I guess to what happened in the Schofield case, very young man gets an advantageous job having a relationship with an older star.

Original poster
Channel4er · 17/09/2023 21:40

SurprisedWithAHorse · 17/09/2023 20:26

Do you think the popularity of reality shows at the time had anything to do with the culture? They were looking for more and more sensational stuff.

Sorry I had to sort out my kids. Yes I do believe that. What's more the channel was extremely reliant on Big Brother and its ratings for far too long which led to ever more sensationalist extensions.

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Original poster
Channel4er · 17/09/2023 21:42

Stokey · 17/09/2023 20:27

In the Times it said Brand got runners to pick women out of the audience and bring them back stage. Did you see this kind of behaviour either there or on other shows?

If the problem wasn't with C4, was it with Endemol?

It's too easy to just blame Endemol. As I say there's no excuse for Commissioning Editors not to be all over their shows. However as I said earlier the Channel doesn't actually make shows themselves so yes I do believe Endemol have always had a lot to answer for and not just this.

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Original poster
Channel4er · 17/09/2023 21:43

@savingherlife no neither

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Original poster
Channel4er · 17/09/2023 21:48

Allthatwegotisthispalebluedot · 17/09/2023 20:48

Do you think you - and I mean this as a part of the team at C4 - were part of the problem?

Russell Brand was made famous because of the type of programming on channel 4 at the time. I was a teenager/young adult when he was a rising star and I remember watching a lot of the programmes he was on, and stuff like big brother. Looking back to me it seems like rape culture, misogyny and exploitation of vulnerable people was absolutely pushed by programmes like BB. Some of the clips shown last night made for extremely uncomfortable viewing. I felt kind of sad for my teenage self to grow up thinking that was acceptable and celebrated.

Yes I think that's true. I absolutely loved Channel 4 and there were lots of incredible things about it. I always believed it had some of the best news and current affairs on TV and has commissioned some brilliant drama and entertainment. But I was also involved in programmes that made me feel uncomfortable at times (not this but other content). I thought I was just a bit naive at the time and it was a different era but I played my part.

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Wendysfriend · 17/09/2023 21:52

Do you think more women will come forward?

The investigator's claim to have investigated him for 3 years, speaking to family, friends, colleagues, celebrities (although I'm not sure why family didn't give him the heads up re this), why do you think, while it is a lot, only 4 women spoke up? Also how come not more people from Channel 4 didn't go on record now about his behaviour?

Reddog1 · 17/09/2023 21:57

Trying to inject some positivity…who are the most pleasant celebrities you’ve worked with? Anyone who has a bad reputation but is actually charming in reality?

Loopylooni · 17/09/2023 21:58

Re : music industry. A friend always says if they do a Metoo on the music industry, there wouldn't be anyone left!

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.

MaudGone · 17/09/2023 22:06

doublec · 17/09/2023 21:20

Channel 4 make nothing themselves but commission others to do so instead. Even Channel 4 news is produced elsewhere, by ITN. Channel 4 are a publisher broadcaster. They commission programmes from 300 (or so) independent production companies across the UK.

This was one of the great misunderstandings/oversights of the government's plan to sell off Channel 4. They also didn't understand that Channel 4 keep the independent productions companies in work, and without Channel 4 to commission them, pretty much the entire independent production industry (in the UK) will collapse.

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Sorry if I'm being dense, but if the production companies are independent, wouldn't all broadcasters commission programmes from them? Or is Channel 4 such a big commissioner, the companies wouldn't survive without it?

allmyliesaretrue · 17/09/2023 22:09

Do you think this is just the tip of an extremely huge iceberg?

determinedtomakethiswork · 17/09/2023 22:13

I like watching married at first sight, but one of the things that I really hate is that they have to share a bed right from the beginning. I know Channel 4 will have done some due diligence, but they can't possibly know how decent the guys are. It seems like only a matter of time before there's a rape accusation.

StandingMyGround888 · 17/09/2023 22:13

As far as I'm concerned, most of the revulsion is for private details that shouldn't have been made public as they were consensual sexual relationships with both parties above the age of consent. It is not illegal for a 31 year old to have sex with a 16 year old.

It is very difficult regarding 'grooming' as what does this mean? People say later that they felt pressured at the time. But how is that to be known by the other party? Is having charisma now a precursor to a crime, for instance? Regretting something that you went through without coercion is not grounds for destroying the other person.

Why couldn't Russell Brand collect willing grown women from the audience to flirt with/begin relationships with? It seems very strange that this would be some sort of moral issue.

Johannalaw · 17/09/2023 22:14

I work for the NASA, MI6, CIA, Butlins, and I am a former SAS, Green Beret, French foreign Legion, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Hogwarts graduate.
AMA.

SurprisedWithAHorse · 17/09/2023 22:19

It is very difficult regarding 'grooming' as what does this mean? People say later that they felt pressured at the time. But how is that to be known by the other party? Is having charisma now a precursor to a crime, for instance?

Hugh Hefner used to get his girls to invite new girls back to the mansion, offer then drugs, get them wasted and then they'd basically be pushed at him with a clear expectation. It's not hard for a powerful man to create an atmosphere where you aren't forced, but you are not given an easy out, the weight of expectation is upon you and you are even expected to be making payment for the honour of being in his harem, going backstage or whatever. You'll basically be held to be in the wrong if you don't.

That's not being seductive or charming. That's not having game. That's not temptation.

That's coercion.

Original poster
Channel4er · 17/09/2023 22:20

@MaudGone other channels do use the same production companies but ITV and BBC also make their own programmes alongside that. They have a mix whilst Channel 4 was set up in a way to specifically stimulate the independent production sector which it did fantastically successfully. It's partly why the UK is so successful globally when it comes to film and TV production. Film 4 launched many illustrious careers and Netflix is now also reaping the rewards.

For those who don't know how this sector works (and why would you) Channel 4 doesn't own the rights to shows long term so the production companies make money from the commission and then also own the formats or secondary rights that they can sell internationally or make spin offs (think Grand Designs Live etc)

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Original poster
Channel4er · 17/09/2023 22:21

Loopylooni · 17/09/2023 21:58

Re : music industry. A friend always says if they do a Metoo on the music industry, there wouldn't be anyone left!

This

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ehupo7 · 17/09/2023 22:22

Channel4er · 17/09/2023 19:55

That was at the BBC on his radio show. It's abhorrent. I think in the same ghastly way that Jonathan Ross laughed along during the Andrew Sachs incident, Brand kept pushing and pushing to see how far he could go and quickly realised the answer was very far.

Because he had created this kind of lascivious persona (hiding in plain sight) people expected to be shocked by him and found it funny. They shouldn't have.

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Side point, but wasn’t it JR who lead the Sachsgate thing by saying - “he f*ed your granddaughter!”

Goateen · 17/09/2023 22:23

Janettttt · 17/09/2023 20:56

For AMA you’ve told us nothing OP.

Has op actually met Russell Brand? Because otherwise it is a bit pointless.

Lots of people criticise their workplace and say 'this wasn't quite right' etc. makes sense, that's why you're an ex-employee?

ZoeCM · 17/09/2023 22:24

@SequentialAnalyst, Jade was consistently awful to Shilpa, and there was definitely a racial element to the bullying (although the more overtly racist comments came from Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara).

Original poster
Channel4er · 17/09/2023 22:25

Reddog1 · 17/09/2023 21:57

Trying to inject some positivity…who are the most pleasant celebrities you’ve worked with? Anyone who has a bad reputation but is actually charming in reality?

The more mediocre the star the bigger the arsehole they are.

The loveliest were some huge US stars although they have horrendous 'people' around them who delight in being monstrous.

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