Russell Brand attributes ‘Sachsgate’ to anti-BBC bias
Comedian Russell Brand has reignited the Andrew Sachs scandal, a 2008 incident in which he and BBC 2 co-presenter Jonathan Ross left a series of abusive answer phone messages on the actor’s phone, by attempting to pin the blame on a ‘pre-existing agenda to destabilise and diminish the BBC’.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs Brand took the opportunity to once more apologise for the ‘hurt’ his antics had caused but couched this by claiming that the subsequent fall out was attributable to subsequent media reports.
He said: “The story I tell to myself of myself is not of a man who is rude to people who are in a position of vulnerability. But what’s difficult is there was obviously a pre-existing agenda in privately owned media to destabilise – diminish the BBC."
Backing this statement up Brand observed that just two complaints were received at the time of broadcast; inflating to 42,000 in wake of the media brouhaha.
Brand added: “The thing 42,000 people were offended by is offensive. It is offensive if someone calls up an answerphone, does some swearing, hangs up. But if incrementally that act is led to by a series of innuendo and in-jokes, then it’s a different thing. It’s still a thing that is wrong but it’s not the thing they are offended by."
“I am sure their offence was genuine. It was wrong and I apologise for that but how the information was presented is important. The situation with the granddaughter had been talked about in a previous show.
“I would always talk about things from my personal life on that radio show and in a relatively respectful, cheeky way."