Tony Klinger

I don’t mind a bit of wild humor, in fact I like it a bit dark and edgy. I don’t even mind the odd profanity in the right place, but not as a replacement for something funny.

What I don’t like is what happened over the weekend to Andrew Sachs via the Russell Brand radio 2 show which Brand was hosting with Jonathan Ross as his guest. On a recorded program they telephoned Andrew Sachs, purportedly to talk about the latter’s time playing the part of the put upon Spanish waiter, Manuel, in the classic TV series, Fawlty Towers and his later career.

Remember this was a recorded program.

When the two comedians and BBC star personalities called, for some reason the 78 year old Sachs was not at home to answer. Instead of replacing the receiver, no harm done, after all this was all being recorded and not going out live, Brand and Ross proceeded to make obscene remarks about Sachs to their audience.

Brand claimed that the elephant in the room, what Andrew doesn’t know is, I’ve slept with his grand daughter, a claim the young lady, Georgina, has since vehemently denied. Ross then calls out, “he f….d your granddaughter!”

This wasn’t enough for the pair of jolly japers who went on to leave another three, increasingly explicit messages. Brand and Ross went on to sing songs on the same explicit theme and then, in the background Ross sings, “Your granddaughter….she was bent over the couch.”

The broadcasters then went one step further, in which they imagined Andrew Sachs committing suicide because of their sketch.

I have listened to the broadcast and the truth is that it just isn’t funny, it’s a stream of consciousness that was going wrong from its start. However, there was a way out for the BBC, because, BEFORE it was broadcast they had two opportunities to pull this section of the recording.

First the powers that be were played this section of the show and they allowed it on air, but not before the producers telephoned Andrew Sachs to ask if he was offended by this pre-recorded segmant. He told them that he was, he specifically asked for the calls not to be broadcast to the show’s 2 million listeners but the producers went ahead anyway.

Sachs also sent a formal e-mail of complaint to Lesley Douglas the radio 2 Controller and didn’t receive a reply.

The BBC now admits it made a mistake and apologized as did their two star broadcasters. There were 69 initial complaints and the MediaWatch spokesman, John Beyer stated , “permission should never have been given for the calls to be aired.” He added, “What were they thinking? How would Mark Thompson (BBC Director General) feel if these kind of comments were made about his daughter?”

Has the BBC totally lost its way that it didn’t see anything wrong in this kind of cruel and inhumane behavior? It is, I suppose, somewhat understandable that their two big headed comedians, pumped up with too much self importance, too much fame and too much money think they’re above the rules and laws and regulations that govern the rest of us. But the BBC is an organization that has to know better. It is our national broadcaster, and we pay for it.

We have the right to demand it meets its self imposed rules as a minimum. A belated apology is not sufficient, and quite rightly there needs to be punishment, and it needs to be obvious. How about, instead of sacking a sacrificial lamb of a lowly producer or two, sacking either Brand and or Ross, or at least fining them a piece of their salary to be paid to a charity of Mister Sachs choice. After all, Ross at £6 million per year, and Brand at £1 million a year, can afford to show us some generosity, and that way we can all get to laugh!

What would really demonstrate contrition is the BBC demonstrating it has not lost all its morality by sacking Roos and Brand, the two jerks deserve it. Failing which I believe there are ground for a prosecution against Brand and Roos and their producers and the BBC for making obscene phone calls.