Radio 2 is so risk-averse and boring now, says Jonathan Ross – and I’m to blame over Sachsgate
JONATHAN ROSS claims the BBC has become more risk-averse and dull in the wake of his Sachsgate scandal on Radio 2.
The Corporation faced a public backlash after the 2008 incident, when comedian Russell Brand and the TV presenter called the muchloved Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs during Brand’s show and left lewd messages on his answerphone. Brand also bragged about sex with Sachs’s granddaughter Georgina Baillie, with whom he had had a brief relationship.
At the time, the BBC sacked Brand and suspended Ross for three months, and it was also fined £150,000 by the regulator Ofcom.
Ross, who hosted a show on Radio 2 for ten years, admits he now rarely tunes in. Talking to Dermot O’Leary on his Audible podcast, he said: ‘I wish it was a little bit more interesting. A lot of the time it feels like they don’t take risks any more, which they used to.
‘Obviously I’m part of the reason they don’t do that any more because of the huge cock-up of me and Russell on his show.
‘It’s one of the reasons they allowed themselves to be beaten back into a position of, “Oh, don’t take risks, don’t take chances.”
‘To an extent I sympathise with that, but at the same time that’s why I don’t listen to a lot.’
Last week Paul O’Grady became the latest big name to leave Radio 2’s weekday schedule, following Steve Wright and Vanessa Feltz out of the door.
Despite the public outcry over what became known as Sachsgate – which was even discussed in Parliament
– Ross did not consider walking away from the broadcaster, claiming the issue had been ‘blown out of all proportion’.
Recalling the incident, Ross added: ‘I didn’t want the people who were going for me and going for Russell to win. That would have been their victory. I didn’t want to throw anyone under the bus, but after the recording I actually said, “You know you can’t put that out unless we have his [Sachs’s] permission? You’ve got to make sure…” That’s why the BBC couldn’t fire me.’
Sachs, who died in 2016 aged 86, said that the pair’s ‘lewd banter was deeply hurtful’.