Complaints
On 25 October, Brand presented his last edition of his radio show with co-host Simon Amstell, which they performed live. Shortly before going on air, Brand was informed that The Mail on Sunday would be running a story about the phone calls. During the show, Brand apologised to Sachs, but also devoted much of the show to deriding the Daily Mail for its alleged support of Nazism in the run up to World War II. Even in his apology to Sachs, Brand stated "what's worse - leaving a swearword on Andrew Sachs' answerphone or tacitly supporting Adolf Hitler when he took charge of the Third Reich?" When Brand mentioned Hitler, The Mail on Sunday's editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre, reportedly went "barmy".
The following day, The Mail on Sunday ran a story about the prank call on its front page. They reported that Brand and Ross could face prosecution for the calls and that Sachs had been "terribly hurt" by the comments. An accompanying editorial attacked the BBC for approving the show for broadcast, describing it as "verbal sewage", urging the police to review the transcripts of the calls and demanding a "grovelling apology" from Brand and Ross. The incident escalated into a media and political storm that, in much of the British media, eclipsed news of the global financial crisis, the United States presidential election, 2008, and fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Sachs later stated he had not given permission for the messages to be broadcast. The BBC originally stated that they were "not aware of any complaint by Mr Sachs", but later confirmed a complaint had been received, and apologised. Brand issued an apology for making the calls but stated it was "funny" during his last radio show, before the Mail had printed the story. Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator, announced its own investigation. On 28 October 2008, the BBC said that it had received 4,700 complaints, after the calls became international news. Later the same day, this number had passed 10,000. The same afternoon, Prime Minister Gordon Brown commented, calling the incident "clearly inappropriate and unacceptable". The following day the number of complaints was said to have topped 18,000. By 2 November, the number of complaints had risen to 38,000. This had been countered by 890 calls demanding the reinstatement of Brand and Ross and various petitions.
This incident resulted in the second-highest number of complaints to the BBC in recent years, second only to its airing of Jerry Springer: The Opera.
In reaction to the telephone calls, Baillie said that her relationship with Brand had been brief and she now felt betrayed that he had revealed it to her grandfather. Baillie called for both Brand and Ross to be "sacked" by the BBC and stated that she and her family would be considering whether to make a formal complaint to the police. Andrew Sachs has since stated that he had no intention of making a complaint to the police or taking the matter further.
Read more about this topic: The Russell Brand Show Prank Telephone Calls Row
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