General Chat

Can anyone recall the public reaction to Simon Dee's removal from BBC?

Did we ever learn what his salary was or is it a modern phenomenon that celebrities ensure we get to hear about such contractual details?

Because the BBC have totally mishandled it I guess. The fact that a lot of people died in an earthquake in Pakistan obviously isn't as important doncha know?

why was it headline news last night --credit crunch , poverty more appropriate

Why cant people stick to the issue&fact than go down a path of slurry name calling,!

Opinions are it was wrong to make these calls and then to allow that voice mail to be aired to the public on what is a part of someones private life thats has whats been revealed,,

He's gone to work on a film he's in. So he was probably off anyway.

According to the press Brand has jetted out to
Los Angeles, good riddance to this talentless, moraless buffoon, please DONT come back soon.

The person I feel sorry for is Andrew Sachs, he is such a nice man met him years ago and I agree with his grandaughter would not hurt a fly, but yes she has done very well out of the publicity thank you very much!!!

Spot on Carole.

The full name of the grandaughters burlesque dance group is called EXTREME Satanic Dance Sluts and apparantly she has now accepted a payment of £50,000 to sell 'her story'. I'm not defending what Ross and Brand have done. (I'm a big fan of them both) They are both grown men and should grow up, but I rather suspect that once again the media is responsible for what seems to me to be mob mentality. All that is needed is some burning torches and pitchforks. There is so much more serious things to protest about than 2 silly juvnile idiots who should know better. Why don't these 10,000 people protest about poverty, genocide etc?

Carole#

Andrew Sachs' grandaughter, the angelic Georgina Baillie, who incidentally admits to sleeping with Russell Brand on 3 occasions, with the full knowledge that "the relationship wasn't going anywhere", has now got plenty of publicity for her Burlesque "dance troupe", the beautifully named Satanic Sluts.

Not everyone's a loser in this sorry little episode 'eh?

Good point, Dermot - I did read that statistically if you are a young single mother (or at least a young single woman) you are more likely to be prosecuted for TV licence "evasion", and this is probably because those who get prosecuted are those who truly can't afford the licence.

Don't know what the licence fee is now - it was £136.50, I think when I bought one for my last year of uni (Sept 2006), but that is probably the best part of a week's wages for a lot of low-paid workers, and it is a bit of a kick in the teeth for any license payer to know this is what their money goes towards (especially when we are given no say about the increase and whether the fee is value for money, we just have to pay it or risk prosecution).

When I was working part-time during uni holidays I was on £5.20 an hour and paid my license fee out of that money. You have to stack a lot of shelves to be able to watch TV legally.

I was in shock when I heard about the BBC spending £81,000 on entertaining over 170 guests at special hospitality event at Wimbledon this year.

Breaking this down, the cost was about £500 a head. Is this what we pay our TV licence for? It’s certainly not for groundbreaking television anymore!

The BBC keep telling us their budget is stretched thinly and that the licence fee must rise if they are to keep delivering a quality service (a more and more debatable description if you ask me). Why, then, are the powers that be behaving like they have money to burn? How must all those staff they let go recently (apart from today's two idiots) feel when they read the same stories?

It is utterly outrageous that the BBC is using viewers’ hard-earned money - that of ordinary families – to treat industry bigwigs to elaborate meals and front-row tickets to the Wimbledon final.

At Glastonbury this year, the same organisation managed to spend £68,000 on corporate hospitality during the three day festival.

As one very wise man once wrote: “I know the world isn't fair, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?”

O.K. I don't know what should happen.When I first heard about this I thought "how dare they do that to Andrew (Manuel)"
Then the story escalated. I heard stuff about Andrew having escaped Nazi Germany, what the f*** has that got to do with it?

Now watching the news, theres Brand and Ross having filmed their"apology" (before the controversy started)

What do I think now? Sack both of them and the guy from Radio 2 who let it go out on air.
This is a momentous decision on my part, I've always believed in freedom of speech and would uphold anyones right to it but as a publicity stunt?

(Would like to see how much Radio 2 ratings increase this week because they will)

Andrew Sachs has received a personal apology and a bunch of flowers from JR but nothing from RB.

He says they are in deep enough trouble without him adding to the backlash but he would like an apology to his grandaughter.

I used to like JR but have gone off him over the past year - he certainly doesn't deserve the millions he earns.

I like RB but having listened on You Tube to the call I am surprised how childish they both sounded! It wasn't funny IMHO.

Been thinking about this.

In my opinion it is irrelevant how many or how few listened to the broadcast and whether anyone of those listeners complained.

I would imagine that the majority of those who did listen to the programme were already fans of Jonathan Ross or Russell Brand. Perhaps many shared their sense of humour.

That doesn't make their behaviour acceptable to the majority of viewers or listeners.

If this had been a local radio station and some elderly local man or woman had been targeted I would hope there would also be an outcry and those responsible removed from a position they have shown they don't deserve. Obviously that would have been unlikely to have caused as large a fuss but the very fact that Andrew Sachs is a well known person doesn't mean that he and his family shouldn't be treated with the same respect and consideration that anyone should be.

I feel particularly sorry for his granddaughter who must be angry and embarrassed about the whole business.

Sue

Has anyone heard Andrew Sachs opinion on the matter?

After all, he is at the centre of this prank yet he has not made a complaint. Did he just take it all in his stride or just simply choose to ignore it. (Which would be the better option).

I beleive there were only 2 complaints on the night- and that was using the F word, not for the content of the show.

Yes JR & RB are juvenile idiots, you only have to watch JR's programme to realize that!
He is forever fawning over the female guests whatever there age, making lewd comments and getting a cheap grope whenever he can. The male guests dont get treated much better!!

It used to be a program i enjoyed, he had a wide variety of guests, had a sense of humour without going over the top and everyone looked like they were having a good time. Now I just get bored as I feel he's invited his mates round for a laugh.

Take it all with a pinch of salt folks!! Who listens to JR on Radio 2 anyway. Dont complain, just turn off!!

I have to say that I have never watched either of these men's shows.What I have seen of them on other programmes has been enough for me. I do not find juvenile behaviour in adults a bit funny, nor obscene language used to provoke laughs. I can find better things to do with my time, and no one should be paid to be hurtful to another human being.

I'm surprised at the mass outpouring of anger over this.

Alright, it wasn't nice, it was a stupid childish stunt which resulted in a very upset, angry and offended man, but no ones died..so lets not hang draw and quarter JR & RB

Hardly surprising this has happened where nowadays everything goes is the norm.
People just don't know anymore when to draw the line, like the one this pair have crossed over

There are plenty of TV programmes where people do and say almost anything they want to, nothings left to the imagination, the only difference is that this butt of their joke is a celebrity, who chose to rightly complain.

I dont think they should lose their Jobs. But it would go halfway to making things right to make sincere apologies, and offer a substantial amount to the mans favourite charity by way of compensation.

Measures should also be made to to stop this sort of thing happening again, these people get paid well enough and should have enough material to not need to resort to such stupid tactics to enrich their shows.

Have they got their P45 yet?

I didn't hear the radio programme and only learned of this behaviour from the news.
I wasn't planning on writing a complaint though the thought did cross my mind.

All of us are licence payers and so pay for the over inflated salaries of people like Jonathan Ross. I've thought for some time that he has become less funny, and his once amusing shows tend to make me cringe these days.

Having heard how upset Andrew Sachs and especially his granddaughter have been made by all this I think any of us who contribute to the ridiculous salaries these "entertainers" get paid have every right to complain.

Even if we weren't paying for them I think that if something is offensive we should make a stand to prevent such behaviour happening again.

This was a childish prank more like the sort of thing you'd expect from teenage lads not from adult men with some sort of standing in the community. If they do not get punished for this and this behaviour isn't seen as something the majority do not find acceptable then I would imagine yobs thinking this is a fun thing to do to all sorts of people.

Sue