SACHSGATE AND THE LESSONS THAT WENT UNHEEDED
IN the BBC Sachsgate scandal of 2008, Jonathan Ross and comedian Russell Brand left lewd messages on actor Andrew Sachs’s answerphone.
The 78-year-old Fawlty Towers star said he was ‘very upset’ and ‘offended very much indeed’ after hearing the messages about his granddaughter, which were aired in a pre-recorded segment during Brand’s Radio 2 show.
The comedians left an answerphone message for the actor in which Ross swore and said Brand had slept with Mr Sachs’s 23-year-old granddaughter Georgina Baillie.
Later in the programme, Brand phoned back to apologise, but then caused further offence by suggesting Mr Sachs might commit suicide because of the previous message.
In a third call, Brand and Ross sang an apology to the actor with the words: ‘I’d like to apologise for the terrible attacks, Andrew Sachs. I said some things I didn’t have oughta, like I had sex with your granddaughter.’
Nothing of the relationship, prior to ‘Sachsgate’, was known to Miss Baillie’s parents Charles and Kate or her grandparents, Mr Sachs and his wife Melody, who told the Daily Mail of their ‘dreadful shock’.
The BBC was forced to apologise for the Brand and Ross’s behaviour, which it admitted was ‘unacceptable and offensive’, and was fined £150,000 by Ofcom.
What started as two complaints from listeners after the broadcast soon grew to a total of ,790.
Critics questioned how the BBC could have allowed the pre-recorded broadcast to be aired.
Following the furore, Brand resigned from the BBC and Ross was suspended without pay for three months. He later left the corporation.