Society certainly has moved on, and thank goodness for that. I remember this sleazy incident (from Wikipedia). Andrew Sachs was 78 at the time. Brand was 33 and Ross was 48. I was astounded at thei time that people made excuses for Brand and Ross and said it wasn't that bad, all a storm in a teacup, etc etc. It was abysmal behaviour and should never have been broadcast.
In an episode of The Russell Brand Show broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 18 October 2008, the comedian Russell Brand and the presenter Jonathan Ross made prank calls to the actor Andrew Sachs that created controversy in the United Kingdom. Brand and Ross called Sachs to interview him on air; when he did not answer, they left lewd messages on his answering machine, including comments about Brand's relationship with Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie.
The episode was prerecorded due to Brand's work commitments.[4] After being unable to reach Sachs on his home telephone, Brand and his co-host that week, the Radio 2 DJ Jonathan Ross, left Sachs four voice messages on his answering machine. In the first message, Brand joked about Fawlty Towers and the fact that both he and Sachs had appeared in The Bill, but was interrupted by Ross shouting out "he fucked your granddaughter". The rest of the message and the following three messages were all characterised by Brand and Ross attempting to apologise for Ross' outburst, but each quickly descended into farce; for example, Brand sang to Sachs: "It was consensual and she wasn't menstrual", and Ross asked to marry him.[4] Brand later said that listening to the calls was like hearing "two idiots dancing towards a canyon"