BBC to make on-air apology for phone prank | World Breaking News | News.com.au
THE BBC will issue on-air apologies on Radio 2 on Saturday for the "offensive" prank phone call made by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand that provoked thousands of complaints and a storm of protest.
During his Radio 2 show on October 18, Brand and Ross left crude messages on the answerphone of 78-year-old actor Andrew Sachs during a radio show.
The presenters were joking that Brand had slept with Georgina Baillie, the 23-year-old granddaughter of Sachs who played Spanish waiter Manuel in cult comedy sitcom Fawlty Towers.
Media coverage of the ensuing row led to more than 30,000 complaints to the BBC and demands the two be sacked.
Brand and Lesley Douglas, the head of Radio 2, resigned while Ross, one of the corporation's highest paid stars, was suspended for 12 weeks without pay.
The BBC Trust, the body which oversees the broadcaster, ordered the corporation to broadcast an apology for serious breaches of editorial standards.
The BBC said this would be done on Radio 2 at 10.03am and 9.03pm, the times when shows hosted by Brand and Russell were usually broadcast.
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