Britain’s BBC says it is “urgently looking into the issues” raised by allegations of sexual assault made against the broadcaster’s former employee, comedian and actor Russell Brand.
Key points:
- Russell Brand worked on BBC radio programmes between 2006 and 2008
- Brand denied the allegations and said that all of his relationships have been consensual
- London’s Metropolitan Police said it had not received any reports in relation to the allegations.
Brand, 48, the former husband of US singer Katy Perry, worked on BBC radio programmes between 2006 and 2008.
He has denied all the allegations and said that all of his relationships have been consensual.
A BBC spokesperson said in a statement: “The documentary and associated reports contained serious allegations, spanning a number of years. Russell Brand worked on BBC radio programmes between 2006 and 2008 and we are urgently looking into the issues raised.”
Brand resigned from the BBC programmes in 2008 following the “Sachsgate” prank calls row, when he made prank calls to actor Andrew Sachs with offensive comments about the actor’s granddaughter.
The media reports also included accusations that Brand flashed his penis at a runner and pursued women in the audience for sex while working on the shows EFourum and Big Brother’s Big Mouth, which were produced by Endemol for Channel 4.
Banijay UK, the production company that owns Endemol, said in a statement on Sunday that it had launched an “urgent” internal investigation into the allegations.
Channel 4 said it had “asked the production company who produced the programmes for Channel 4 to investigate these allegations and report their findings properly and satisfactorily to us”.
The broadcaster added it was conducting its own internal investigation, and encouraged “anyone who is aware of such behaviour to contact us directly”.
Political storm circling
In an interview with the BBC, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that those in power must “be better” at listening to the voices of the “relatively powerless”.
“I think there are some real challenges where you have these very, very acute differentials in power — whether that be in the entertainment industry, whether that be in politics, and we see this in the commercial world as well,” he said.
“I think we have to be particularly careful when we listen to the voices of the people who are relatively powerless because we, I think collectively, have missed opportunities to do the right thing and intervene much, much earlier, and we’ve got to be better at this.”
Dame Caroline Dinenage, who chairs the House of Commons media committee, said: “We will be closely monitoring the responses of the media, especially our public service broadcasters, to these allegations, and looking at the questions that this, yet again, raises about the culture in the industry as a whole.”
London’s Metropolitan Police said it had not received any reports in relation to the allegations.
“If anyone believes they have been the victim of a sexual assault, no matter how long ago it happened, we would encourage them to contact the police,” the police said in a statement.
Women’s charity Trevi, which helps women affected by violence and abuse, said it had ended its association with Brand.
Tavistock Wood, a talent agency, said in a statement it “has terminated all professional ties to Brand”.
“Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him,” it said.
Reuters/ABC