This JR/RB/Andrew Sachs thing

I'm not sure that you can make that assumptin - it's a bit unfair.

TBH I would have heard those messages and thought they were ridiculous. If I felt moved to do something I would have spoken to the person involved first and got them to agree a plan of action.

However, I absolutely think you have a valid point that the producers dropped the ball on this occasion.

Exactly how broad does the bad taste category have to be before leaving a message saying "I've fucked your grandaughter" get's into it?

I agree - he's very much the victim in this several times over, as the Mail has massively magnified the impact of the original offence (not least by splurging said granddaughter all over the paper).

I don't think the DM's milking of the story is right at all.

I think the public's complaints and the DM's stance etc are all just bandwagoning.

But that doesn't mean that AS's initial complaint is not justified or that the editors of this show were not remiss in broadcasting it.

Umm... It made me laugh?

You don't think he was justified in complaining about his treatment? Please.

To a certain extent I agree with Mr. JKs last. The furore is overblown. But to accuse Sachs of being out of order for complaining about it is ludicrous. Nobody would have heard about it except RB's listeners.... That's fine then. Any amusing anecdotes about the sexual proclivities of Hitchers (real or imagined) that I post in the future will not be cause for a shit storm then as it's only Hitched readers who'll see them.

A grip, get one.

No, he didn't ask for the phone calls - I absolutely agree.

Personally, I think it's daft to take offence to such a silly thing. However, he has and that is his right. IF he'd have made a private complaint to the BBC then, when the tabloid press came knocking said 'this is a private matter between me and the BBC', then fair enough. However he chose to take it into the public domain, which, to me, smacks of attention seeking.

I am very happy to debate this further but I am about to go into a meeting. Will be back in 90 mins or so though.

Katchoo - he's a 78 year old man...he grew up during WWII! I can fully imagine why he'd find the comments so upsetting - there's a massive generational difference here. I don't see how he's being daft for taking offence.

Very true. I do think the whole thing has been blown out of all proportion, with the Mail now baying for the blood of JR and RB, I just don't think AS is the one to blame, so the comments (I realise not by you) about him milking it annoyed me ?.

For the people who don't think it's funny - that's ok, you don't need to as you're not 'Russell Brand Show' listeners. It's not a waste of tax-payers' money if there are listeners who are enjoying the show. I don't like Strictly Come Dancing, which I'm sure costs a lot of 'my' money but if doesn't need to entertain me - i can get my money's worth elsewhere (like laughing to the Russell Brand Show).

I can't believe how many complaints there were AFTER Associated Press 'broke' the story compared to before. And i believe the two before were to complain about the swearing, not the content. I find it baffling that there are over 700 comments on the Daily Mail website saying 'RB and JR should be ashamed of themselves for humiliating Andrew Sachs and his grandaughter' - complete with three saucy images of the girl, photos of AS outside his home and a transcript of the show.

Surely they would have been a lot less humiliated if the papers hadn't splashed it across the newsstands? People who get upset about this kind of thing when they read it in the paper and see everyone else all riled up really make me cringe.

I don't see why AS shouldn't be allowed to make his feelings known publicly since the original 'offence' has been broadcast publicly. Maybe it would have been taking the moral high ground to keep his response private but if events have upset him enough to make him complain, I can understand him wanting to tell people how he feels about it.

However I completely agree with others that the tabloid reporting is completely over the top.

The tabloid press can print what they like, with or without the permission of the subject of the story.

I find it all too plausible that the tabloid press went digging for whatever information they could find and printed it without speaking to Andrew Sachs at all, once they were aware he'd made a complaint...

I'm not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if the names of complainants are a matter of public record...

Did Andrew Sachs go to the Daily Mail or are they doing this off their own back? (Sorry, I haven't looked on the site)

Yes, but he's German. In fact, the Daily Mail campaigned for the likes of him to be kept out of the country when Sachs' parents were seeking refuge in England (Sachs' father was Jewish).

I wish I was making this up, but I'm not.

Absolutely.

If I was RB and JR I'd be grateful he didn't drop dead of a heart attack listening to the messages!

I don't think anyone's disagreeing with the fact that the redtops have whipped this into a far larger debacle than was strictly necessary.

Whether it was funny or not is a matter of opinion I suppose... I used to find "I done yer Ma" amusing at school but the novelty wore off round about the time I started doing the girls whose Ma's I'd previously besmirched.

I'd take issue though with anyone who thought it was in any way justifed or anyone who didn't think that Sachs had a right to complain about it.

Seems like a massive storm in a teacup. Like some others have said, if AS is upset by it, then that is between him and the bbc, why the meeja have to blow it up out of all proortion is beyond me.

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How do you know that? Last time I checked, listening to a show didn't mean you automatically found everything on that show hilarious.

I'm detecting a teensy-weensy bit of 'thread creep' ?

Damn, I just typed a really long quoted response to someone and it's gone - bum - who deleted their posts?!!! ?

I agree that the Daily Mail are causing more embarrassment/upset/publicity with their hypocrital exposure - but they wouldn't be able to do that if JR and RB hadn't behaved so arrogantly in the first place.

I think that people need to sit up and realise that celebrities such as JR and JB do, at some point, have to take responsibility for their actions. They are not above the law, and Ithink that if a random non-celeb had left taunting messages on one of my grandparents answer machines then I'd report it to the police as some form of harrassment.

I would absolutely want some form of retribution - why do they think they can get away with not following 'normal' rules of conduct?

WZS.

I was behind him in a queue (starbucks ?) last year during the Edinburgh Festival. He just looks so greasy and yucky, he made my skin crawl. He does need a good wash.

Report it to the police? I cannot see in what way they have committed a crime, and thus how it follows they think they are some how above the law?
It was an ill advised prank, and I really fail to see how anyone can manage to get even remotely worked up about it, apart from AS himself, and possibly the grand daughter although that seems quite doubtful as it sounds like she is at the very least friends with RB, and also is getting lots of free publicity

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I'm not sure why some people enjoying the show means it's ok to leave obscene messages on a man's answer machine?

Agree 100% with knownowt and with a lot of what katchoo is saying.

Also, I am having sex with Russell Brand next year (on valentine's day, as it happens). You read it here first.

I'd do him like a shot.

I agree with everything Zebra has said.

And notwithstanding the offence to Andrew Sachs, even if he hadn't been offended by it this is about as funny as everything else RB does ie as hilarious as a dose of the clap.

I can't bear him. I can't bear to look at him, his horrible whiney voice or his "humour". I've tried as I think I must be missing something but I just don't get it. I think he's utterly ghastly.

Close to the line on the Telecommunications Act I'd have thought.... If not over.

He's coming to glasgow to do a show on 14/02/2009 and I've decided to go for it (and before I am accused of being big-headed and presumptous, brand will do anything with a pulse, which I hope to still have on 14/02/2009.)

I don't know what law they might have broken but I'd like to think that there might be something.. If there isn't, there should be. If this happened to me IRL I would certainly make sure the perpetrators got some sort of retribution... In a lot of places they would get a good kicking.. I think the reason why they are so near the knuckle with their comedy is because there's never any comeback.. in real life, there flippin well would be.

Hmm...well that kind of thing is clearly not my kind of bedside reading.
So, imo, if they have committed an actual crime they should follow whatever process is involved.
Aside from that, it's quite dull, as a story

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Improper use of public telecommunication system—(1) A person who—

(a) sends, by means of a public telecommunication system, a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or

(b) sends by those means, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, a message that he knows to be false or persistently makes use for that purpose of a public telecommunication system,

shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to [imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both].

So potentially.....

Jerry Sadowitz once played the Montreal Comedy Festival. He opened it with the words "Hello, moose-fuckers" and just about managed to follow that up with "I'll tell you why I hate Canada, half of you speak French, and the other half let them" before he was beaten up onstage by a member of the audience.

I don't think he's been back. ?

I wondered if ths was going to be discussed.

The issue I have personally is that the joke wasn't funny. JR blurting on an answer message that RB had flucked AS's granddaughter is hardly comedy gold. And I love Jonathan Ross and have been a fan for many, many years. The follow-up messages were cringe-worthy and smacked of the sort of stoopid in-jokes that again are deliberately exclusive.

To perform this in private would be juvenile and a waste of time. To broadcast a pre-recorded stunt like this on national publicly-funded radio was a massive error of judgememnt on the part of the producer. AS has stated that he has been offended, so it is offensive. I do think that someon should be held accountable and apologise properly. RB's half-arsed effort wouldn't cut it with me either.

Of course the mas hysteria is ridiculous and actually the risk for AS now is that his complaint gets lost in the inevitable follow-up hysteria of "Is the media's hysterical reaction to this prank really necessary"-type comments and discussions that will be played out over the next lot of weeks.

Incidentally, had anyone left such a message about me for my granda, he'd have hunted them down and killed them.