Russell Brand, Jonathan Woss and Andrew Sachs

[JoolsToo]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3263328/Russell-Brand-and-Jonathan-Ross-joke-radio -phone-calls-just-werent-funny.html

Have we not had a discussion about this? I'm surprised.

Seedy, sordid, unfunny little men pad obscene amounts of money to be obscene.

What's your view?

He's getting too elderly for his hair, though.

It wasn't even humorous.

Brand and Ross are at the peak of their success. I bet that last week, hardly any of us knew who Georgina Baillie or Andrew Sachs were. Two relatively powerful men chose to publicly insult and demean a very much younger woman and her elderly grandfather. The ages do matter, as does the disparity in power, because it is classic bullying.

So was Andrew Sachs due to be on the programme with them? Poor man. He had a lucky escape.

"How could the BBC stoop so low? It is an offence to make these kinds of
calls. These two men should get the sack, be taken to court and then sent to
prison."

It was Brand's show so he is being held more responsible - he has also failed to issue an apology to either Sachs or Bailie. And has since insisted that "it was quite funny".

It's ridiculous to suggest that people shouldn't have an opinion on this just because they weren't listening, and to label people who do 'moral crusaders'.

People should voice their opinions when they feel that someone has behaved badly, even if they didn't find out at the exact time that it happened. Precisely because devoted listeners aren't going to complain about it themselves.

And this has nothing to do with Sach's age, or the morality of this. It has everything to do with respect, and the fact that people just don't seem to have any for each other anymore, which is why someone thought this offensive crap suitable for broadcast.

And yes, it does have something to do with the way people talk about certain groups, in this case, women. Whatever the truth is, it comes across as them outing her as a slut in order to offend her grandfather. It's unbelievable to think that in this day and age, women are still the whores, and boys just get props.

Blu concur with your post of 13:23. The BBC is held as a benchmark for broadcasting the world over. It may well be a double standard but what is acceptable on Channel 4/5 etc is simply not on BBC, partly due to its funding stream and partly for its reputation's sake. It took a hard knock over the phone voting scandal, ironically with one of the shows implicated being RB's radio show

1. You don't need a TV licence to listen to the Radio
2. this programme was on the radio
3. Anyone ever seen or laughed at Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
4. Actually - with certain provisos, I think anyone is fair game.

Not prison, perhaps.

But definitely a long sentence of Slebs-eat-Slugs or X-factor or some other modern day version of the stocks or pillory.

I adore Peter Cook. He is my comedy hero - even Derek and Clive make me pee with laughter.

Still think what RB and JR did was vile and should be publicly punished.

The show is funded by the licence. If you have one, you are paying for it.
Did Peter Cook and Dudley Moore ring up old people and shout abusive things about their grandchildren at them? Or were they funny instead?
I'm sure you'd find it fantastically funny if your child was is verbally bullied in the playground or if people called your grandma a slut for a laugh. Or possibly not.

"A BBC spokeswoman said the programme had received two complaints related to Ross's swearing - rather than the content of the phone calls - before details of the incident were publicised in a Sunday newspaper. "

Sachs' agent, Meg Poole, has written a letter to Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas asking for an unreserved apology. She added that the actor did not hear the programme, but listened to a recording and was "offended very much indeed" by its content.

So? Are you surprised that a 78 year old actor doesn't listen to Russell Brand? What is the point of that post?

Hurrah! I have one! I am happy to pay for it!

turquoise - weren't you offended on Dudley Moores behalf when Peter Cook was so vile about the cancer knowing full well that Moores motehr was dying from it!

"The BBC seem to show a bias towards Muslims. Andrew Sachs is a Jew,
I think he only had the mick taken out of him because of this, if he was Muslim this
would not have happened. All religions need to be considered equal in the BBC."

beaniescreamyb, I know you've already been asked this but - do you have some personal interest in this story, e.g. knowing one of the presenters?

Sachs hardly needed to listen to the broadcast - he had had a sneak preview on his answerphone!

"My whole family and I were disgusted and angered by the filthy and
obscene prank phone call made by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to Andrew
Sachs. It was pornographic and dirty stuff aimed at mocking an old man. I want
them sacked immediately"

Thanks, Turquoise.

"Actually - with certain provisos, I think anyone is fair game."

You know what? That's the problem with a) the media, and b) society.

All these magazines, propping these celebs up in order to later pull them down, and laugh and point at their cellulite/botched plastic surgery, etc. It's bullying, and this was what the JR/RB episode also was. We accept this bullying as entertainment (see Big Brother for more evidence) and yet we expect our children to go to schools that are free of it. It's just horrible.

This one is fab!

"I find this an entirely inappropriate thing to do to an elderly man and a
holocaust survivor."