Yes, but Naomi you're just taking it personally. You're not seeing the Big Picture.

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No disrespect to whatever it was you went through but all the same...

Jem, I hardly think the content of my penultimate post on this thread should be seized upon as the sole reason why I think these two jokers deserve to be fired for their actions. I have made several other points which I hope would show that I am aware of the 'bigger picture'.
I'm sorry if their absence in future Radio Times schedules will spoil your viewing/listening pleasure.



- NaomiM

Not half as sorry as I am.

Sorry, but...

22,000 complaints. (After the media coverage, of course. During the show there were, um, 2...)

= 22,000 people who seriously need to lighten up.

The girl in question suddenly pops up in all the papers, her 'horror', her 'shock', her 'humiliation' blah blah yadda yadda. Her lucrative newspaper deals more like and a bid for the same vacuous fame that haunts this country nowadays. If Georgina is so damn humiliated, why has she drawn this to the world's attention? The PC brigade have taken a nation of whingers and given them carte blanche. It's ridiculous. Slapped wrists, yes. Government intervention? Please.

Ross plays to a crowd. He winds up celebs who are so damn full of themselves they can't see the joke. The same goes for Brand. We'll see them on Channel 4 making light of this fiasco in due course.

JB





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Rather fond of 'The Satanic Sluts' though.

Hmmm....must admit I am now thinking it has got out of hand. Think I would have liked to see them have big slap on the hand, but it's not REALLY a debate about the state of the BBC is it?

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Hey, tell you what though...the dicussion has blown away the tumbleweed in this forum!

I think this is a total storm in a teacup and I hate the way the public can be so easily manipulated. I don't think tabloids should be allowed to call for peoples' heads. And I don't think it's got anything to do with politicians. And I find the way they've jumped on the bandwagon pretty sickening. Surely there are more important things they should be worrying about. The other times the newspapers have been up in arms and politicians have tried to ban comedy it's been important stuff that says something about our times- like Chris Morris. This case wasn't important comedy and seemed a bit childish but its not like the politicians can tell the difference and you have to allow a bit of rough with the smooth in order to allow the important stuff to get through. Raps on the knuckles = exactly. They probably knew they overstepped the line. Not worth all this furore and the BBC should have been left to deal with it themselves.

Agree it's got out of hand. But still think it was a - to use JB's word in a different context - vaccuous and thoughtless thing to do.
Susiex

Exactly. Brand's apology was so sweet. He decided to resign from his Radio SHow because he only does it to make people laugh and if people aren't laughing he doesn't want to do it any more. Bless!

But should a vacuuous and thoughtless thing to do really rock the whole foundations of the BBC? A silly thing on one radio show should threaten BBC4 and Radio 4 and all of the more "serious" stations as well? Should have things like the BBC Natural History Unit (something no other television channel has or can afford) teetering to its knees? And should papers who regularly indulge in kiss n tells really be so morally outraged about what is - in effect - a kiss n tell? The whole thing is being used if you ask me and I think we shouldn't allow ourselves to be used like this.

Like I say, Snowy, I think it's got out of hand. And of course, the media is disappearing up its own a**e because it is both prosecutor and defendant in this situation. And yes, we are being manipulated as we always are. However - I'm only commenting on the original event, not the circus that has followed it.
Susiex

I agree the whole thing is overblown but still - just because for whatever reason Andrew Sachs didn't make the phone interview - ringing up and leaving a series of messages on his answerphone saying - he/I fucked your granddaughter. Very droll - not.

It seems to me fairly obvious that dear little Rossie got the idea from that Sarah Silverman/Matt Damon clip - which was set up as an in joke between close friends and went big on the internet - and most tellingly - couldn't tell the difference.

Just because the girl is in a group called Satanic Sluts and goes in for corsets doesn't mean 'she was asking for it' or even what Brand did wasn't cheap and nasty. Presumably if she was that desperate for exposure she would have made capital out of the affair then. It shows an incredible lack of respect for her and especially for her grandfather. So he slept with a girl ten years younger - she was 21 at the time - and then puts it out on the airwaves 2 years later. Sweet...

Did Ross or Brand even stop to think about the hurt and humiliation they were causing? Brand has given a graceful apology - I can accept that he is an idiot and should but didn't know better - but what was Ross on?

Had it been a member of his own family the writs from his legal team would have been flying like arrows.

I'd love to see it as a harmless prank - but it wasn't.

The impression I get is that Ross in particular is so insulated from reality that he has lost touch of the fact that there are real people out there with real feelings - Brand has at least acknowledged that - he hasn't.

And without being unkind - after that crack about being worth 1000 BBC journalists - he had a reality check coming?

Sarah

Well, I know you are commenting on the incident rather than the reaction but to me the reaction is far the more sinister, important and bigger issue. Even if you go with everything you say, Optimist, surely it was still something that could have been dealt with fairly straightforwardly without this hoopla. I don't want tabloids dictating what happens to people or producers or anyone else in the BBC. I just went to my shop and every single tabloid headline is screaming about it. Plus the granddaughter is doing her own kiss n tell in some of them. I don't actually agree with any sort of kiss n tell but you've got to look at why they are kicking up a fuss about this? Because of morals? I don't think so.

Andrew Sachs himself said he wanted noone sacked and wasn't collecting apologies. I decided not to listen to the screaming headlines and went and listened to the whole thing myself properly and it seemed to me that they weren't trying to intimidate or be particularly malicious towards Andrew Sachs (all this "they discussed him killing himself" No they didn't.) It seemed to me like two people who were trying to impress each other and competing for who could be the most outrageous and yes, completely lost sight of what and why they were doing it. I don't think the result was funny and WAS in bad taste and shouldn't have been done in the first place and shouldn't have been broadcast if Sachs said not. But all that is straightforward stuff. The rest of it - the reaction and the way people have been manipulated is far more sinister and a VERY VERY important issue in my mind.

Fair point, snowy, and ultimately even by discussing it we add to it? Because that, in a way, is how it all began - the media 'brought it to our attention' and we run off with it like dogs after a ball. I agree that it highlights the whole circus - in a similar way to the whole Gok Wan story that's in the news at the moment.
Susiex

Hi Snowy - I think the 'killing himself' was on the transcript - I did read it because I don't like leaping to conclusions - and I do agree that the tabloids should not dictate - they all have their own axes to grind against the BBC.

Of course the girl is selling her story now - can you blame her - she has to salvage something from this? - but the point is she didn't 2 years ago... She said 'I thought he was my friend'.

Take the recent 'babbling women' thread - anecdotes about past lovers but no one named names or made personal remarks? Sexual betrayal is always cheap?

Its all very well to say - leave the BBC to sort it - but they didn't. Last night they were trying to make out everyone over 40 thinks its terrible and everyone under 40 thinks its ok - which may be right and I don't especially like being on the Grundy side of the fence.

Comedy should never focus on the victimisation of an individual? Of course it is all to with the licence fee as well and is a great distraction from the credit crisis.

Believe me I hate witch hunts and mob rule - I do take your point - there is an 'a la lanterne les aristos' aspect to this.

Sarah

They did not "discuss" him killing himself. Brand went something like - oh god, I can't believe I said that, Oh no, don't kill yourself or anything. or something glib. The point is the papers make out he phoned up with a gravelly voice and him and Ross "discussed" him killing himself which just is not how that came across to me. It was just stupid trying-to-shock stuff.

I'm not justifying it. I already said what I think about it. But why on earth do people think that the BBC has to be hauled over the coals every time there's some error or problem or lapse. And by the very papers who regularly pay huge sums to ENCOURAGE people into sexual betrayal? Hypocrisy, as per usual.

This is about making money by whipping up a furore and gunning for people they want to gun for. I don't think what Brand and Ross did was alright but i'm damned if anyone's going to use my feelings about it for their own ends and to stoke their own agendas. And I don't see Sachs asking for any of this or gunning for anyone. I'll bet he doesn't want to be used in this fashion either. Why don't they have a bit more respect for him and leave it alone now?

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I'll be willing to bet he has people camped outside his door day and night now and phoning him all the time and bothering him.