The Russell Brand Show Prank Telephone Calls Row

The Russell Brand Show Prank Telephone Calls Row

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The Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row, sometimes colloquially referred to as "Sachsgate", were a series of voice messages that comedian Russell Brand and TV presenter Jonathan Ross left on the answering machine of actor Andrew Sachs, which were labelled obscene by many media commentators and politicians. It followed a BBC Radio 2 broadcast of an advance-recorded episode of The Russell Brand Show on Saturday 18 October 2008. In the show, Brand and Ross left lewd messages on the voice mail of Sachs, including comments about Sachs' granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. The two originally called Sachs as a guest to interview on the show, and after he failed to answer the telephone, Brand and Ross left the messages on his answering machine.

After little attention, a Mail on Sunday article on 26 October 2008 about the show led to a record number of complaints and criticism of Brand, Ross and the editorial decisions of the BBC. The two presenters were criticised by a number of MPs, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Following the complaints, Ross was suspended from his positions at the BBC while both the BBC and Ofcom launched investigations. Both Brand and Lesley Douglas, Controller of Radio 2, resigned from the BBC. Ross was suspended without pay for 12 weeks on 30 October, later describing the experience as "fun". The BBC was fined £150,000 by Ofcom because of the incident.