Not since that Afghan family were given a £1.2m council house have the tabloids been so furious. Amongst the accusations they have levelled at ‘Wossy’ and Brand today, “filthy”, “foul” and having “no sense of shame” topped the bill.
If you want to know what horrible comedic material they are referring to, check the Mail’s website- most of it’s on there. In fact, the Mail’s moral outrage could be described as ironic, considering the degree to which they’ve amplified the offence caused to the public (and humiliation suffered by Sachs) by filling their newspaper with every detail of the broadcast. The Independent claims that there were just two complaints to Ofcom after the actual programme. The number of complaints now stands at 18,000 thanks to the extent of the media coverage.
If more proof were needed of the whole media’s complicity in poor Andrew Sachs’ embarrassment, the Mail and the Sun have provided a platform for Sexy Granddaughter Sachs to cause her grandfather further toe-curling embarrassment. On the Mail website, you can choose between Melanie Phillips fuming about Brand and Ross’s “foul vulgarity”, and Georgina Baillie’s thinly disguised kiss and tell.
Of course, the latter had the grubby handprints of one Max Clifford all over it. As soon as it emerged that the subject of Brand and Ross’s ill-judged prank was a burlesque dancer who called herself “satanic slut”, it was almost inevitable that this grimy character would somehow get involved. Fatefully, his books were a little on the empty side this week, Kerry Katona having dumped him after her GMTV slur-a-thon.
But if Clifford’s involvement is depressingly predicable, there is plenty about this debacle that is unprecedented: for one thing, the level of criticism heaped upon Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. This has been disproportionate and largely misdirected. In a free society, cultural life will be full of controversial and offensive figures. David Irving will spout rubbish about the holocaust, Bernard Manning will make racist jokes and Russell Brand will… well, be obscene. But no-one has to broadcast any of it. It is the responsibility of printers and broadcasters, who mediate between these people and the public, to make sound judgements about who should be given a voice, and where.
What Brand and Ross did and said was horrible, but no-one forced the BBC to air it. Comedic artists shouldn’t have to adhere to a broadcasting code. The BBC does, and so the buck stops with them. That the reaction has instead ofcused on Brand and Ross demonstrates how fully the rest of the media have allowed the agenda to be dictated by the Mail. Most notably, the BBC’s own judgement seems to have been absent from the entire affair. Rather than making a stand themselves, this historic public service institution has allowed the Daily Mail to set the agenda of public decency. With the greatest of respect, that is the last thing we need.
