Jonathon Ross

[LEO]

His apology is worthless.

The hurt to Leonard Sachs and his family will be long lasting and, absolutely undeserved.

 

 

Leo

[Quillan]

From what I read on the internet and heard on TV Leonard Sachs was quite happy with the apologies although personally I would have wanted to ripe their heads of. Make fun of me by all means but leave my family out of it.

I personally feel, based on the fact this was a recorded show, that the fault lies at the doors of the BBC for allowing it to go out. They should not have broadcast it, given the boys a serious slap and make them sit down and write an apology (if they act as children then treat them as children) and that would have been the end of it.

As comedians and TV hosts I like these two but these comments about Leonard's grand daughter were a step too far.

The other thing is, listening to people talking about it again on the news this morning, is that it deflects people away from the more serious news of house prices tumbling yet again and the general state of the economy.

[Maricopa]

Hi all

Do you all mean Andrew Sachs, or am I missing something?

[betoulle]

It has been blown up out of all proportion - when the broadcast went out originally it received 2 complaints...the 10,000 compliants received since have been due to the excessive coverage by the BBC & tabloids............and probably all from the anti-Brand & Ross brigade... I agree with Quillan that the fault lies with the production team.....  Having been to recordings of Have I Got News For You you would be amazed & horrified by what gets said pre-edit.........  The bottom line is that Ross & Brand wind each other up...it got out of hand..should not have been broadcast & now should be forgotten..after all the girl has admitted to sleeping with Brand so there is an element of truth under the hype.  They have apologised publically & privately, lets forget it & get on with life.  Personally I think both are great broadcasters & it would be a great shame to lose Ross in particlar - despite his humour he is well respected - as can be seen by the quality of his guests & I for one would be very sorry to see him leave the Film programme.  There is no-one else of his calibre around at present.

[Clarkkent]

[quote user="LEO"]

His apology is worthless.

The hurt to Leonard Sachs and his family will be long lasting and, absolutely undeserved.

Leo

[/quote]

I think that this dates you, Leo.

Was not Leonard Sachs the gentleman who acted as chairman for the Edwardian music hall shows from the Leeds City Varieties? Wonderful stuff, but it has not been seen for 30 years. Leonard has been dead for decades.

This story appeared on the front page of the Mail on Sunday and formed an immediate focus for the uneducated lower middle class saddos who form the philosophical core of its readership: something to be angry about, something which shows clearly the moral decline of a once-great nation.

That said, I think the whole business was tasteless and should have been edited out of the recording.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

It 's on youtube and listening to it, I found it pretty stupid. Something you'd do as a schoolkid.

Still, good publicity for the granddaughter's gothic rock band, Satanic Sluts I understand it's called.

[Bugsy]

 Tis quite funny how, in situations like this, the classification and name-calling comes out of the woodwork. I don't read The Mail, but do have values instilled in me from a lifetime of experience. I do believe that society has gone downhill since my youth and that PC is quite possibly the worst think that has happened to mankind since time began.

That said, and ignoring the current emotion surrounding this event, it remains a fact that the making of offensive phone calls is illegal.

"6.  Section 127 of the 2003 Act, so far as material, provides:

"127.  Improper use of public electronic communications network

(1)  A person is guilty of an offence if he—

(a)  sends by means of a public electronic communications
network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an
indecent, obscene or menacing character; or

(b)  causes any such message or matter to be so sent.

(2)  A person is guilty of an offence if, for the purpose of
causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, he—

(a)  sends by means of a public electronic communications network, a message that he knows to be false,

(b)  causes such a message to be sent; or

(c)  persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network.

(3)  A person guilty of an offence under this section shall
be liable, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard
scale, or to both."
The facts speak for themselves really and the fact that they are 'high-profile' should not really be relevent.
.

[Renaud]

Ross and Brand always seem so thrilled with themselves, seeing them come a cropper does not sadden me. The problem with the broadcast I suspect was that the production team dare not cross them.

---

Clark Kent, I would be interested to know what paper you read - other than the one you and Louis Lane write for. (I am a Torygraph and Private Eye reader).

[Hoddy]

If Brand and Ross had really been the schoolboys they were emulating, and had left such a message on the ansaphone of the grandfather of someone they knew, then action would almost certainly have been taken against them. Whether what they said was true would not really come into it; what they said was unnecessary, offensive and illegal.

Brand and Ross are being paid out of public money for behaviour which would have been punished if perpetrated by others.

Funny old world.

Hoddy

 

 

[Gastines]

Just adds to the general acceptance of foul language by the youth and public. OK to F & B but don't use any racist words.At least I can avoid watching ,listening to this pair but unfortunately there's a lot more out there.

OH yes, visited the main office of Ouest France yesterday, the papers with the biggest Europe wide sales are listed.First Das Bild ,second The Sun, about 7th The Mail and The Telegraph about 14th.No mention of The Times etc. One confession ,I've always called it France Ouest.

Regards.

[Clarkkent]

[quote user="Renaud"] --- Clark Kent, I would be interested to know what paper you read - other than the one you and Louis Lane write for. (I am a Torygraph and Private Eye reader).[/quote]

I don't buy any newspapaer on a regular basis, but do sometimes buy the Guardian or Independent. Of course, I get my free copies of the Daily Planet.

However, my friend (not Lois) buys the Mail on Sunday, which I take the opportunity to study. It is a very professionally put-together product: it has very good features sections which are well worth the cost of the paper, but its political and social comments pages present an image of a Britain I neither know nor want to know. Many of its news items are selected or adjusted to reflect this image. Don't forget that in the 1930s the Daily Mail generally approved of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

EDIT: Why does the forum software decide to asterisk N_a_z_i? Is it an obscene word? Will it censor National Socialist?

 

[Russethouse]

I agree with Hoddy - further more surely as Mr Ross is being paid vast sums funded from the license fee and taking into account that he is an adult with daughters of his own, is it really too much to expect that he has some reasonable, self instilled, decent parameters of behavior ? In short he is old enough to know better.

Testing the boundaries is a very poor excuse, or defense - test them at your own expense, or your own families, not someone elses.

Personally I think that tolerating Mr Ross poor, near the knuckle behavior, on a Friday evening has gone to far - if we pay him all that money to keep him, let him go, let the ITV or who ever, have him.

Grumpy Old Woman

 

[Russethouse]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7696714.stm

Both suspended awaiting the outcome of an enquirey.

[tuppence]

And ofcourse like so many others that have gone before, it will be slapped wrists and back to work in a fortnight. So called "celebrities" (sureley the most over used word in the English language) can do pretty much as they want and get away with it regardless of the offense they may cause to others.

tuppence

[Théière]

I heard the tape yesterday and just after J Ross made his fowl comment he actually said sorry to A Scachs. I do not know whether that was the 1st 2nd or 4th message but it was there. It was high spirits that went over the top.

It should have been edited out as requested bt A Sachs not broadcast, even J Ross and R Brand should have had the sense in the cold light of day i.e. the following day to have made sure it was edited out.

They didn't so now they must take everything thats coming. They are paid far too much, Kenny Everett was sacked from every where he worked and was still much funnier (IMO).

I  am really fed up with the constant profanity on T.V.  J Ross, R Brand, J Oliver, G Ramesy and others.

[Kitty]

Boys will be boys.  Brand and Ross are boys who have never grown up.  That is why they have been so popular.

[Maricopa]

[quote user="Russethouse"]Both suspended awaiting the outcome of an enquirey.[/quote]

Am I alone in thinking it is the producer who should be suspended/ fired, for allowing the broadcast of this PRERECORDED program.[8-)]

[oscar]

No you're not alone.  A large part of their job is to control the quality of the programmes.  Why on earth did they even let R&B make FOUR phonecalls in the first place???

[quote user="Renaud"]Ross and Brand always seem so thrilled with themselves, seeing them come a cropper does not sadden me. The problem with the broadcast I suspect was that the production team dare not cross them. --- [/quote]

NOT TRUE.  I worked in the department at the BBC for a time where the producer's policy document was being written and presented to all BBC and freelance producers. They know their boundaries, they know the legalities.  They have been equally negligent in this matter and yet nothing has been said about them.  They're also a pretty tough lot and would have the backing of the BBC if they refused to air this programme.

Personally I think Ross and Brand were really stupid to do this and I'm a little disappointed in Jonathan Ross for having done so, especially as others have said in that he has his own daughters and didn't choose to retract the prank in the cool clear light of day and before it was broadcast.

However, all of this has got totally out of hand:

There were only two complaints when the programme was aired well over a week ago. Nothing was said about it until the Mail made a big issue about it.  Andrew Sachs presumably picked up his ansaphone messages before the programme was aired - 2 days after the messages were left - and didn't do anything to stop the broadcast.  His grand-daughter HAS actually slept with Brand, which although doesn't right the wrong, does make it slightly less offensive.  Ross and Brand apologised to Andrew Sachs and Mr Sachs accepted their apologies.  All this happened before even 1000 complaints had been received but with the broadcast being aired more than 3 times an hour all day Monday and Tuesday on BBC24 no wonder enough people eventually heard it to increase the number tenfold.  There are a lot of politics at the BBC and I think this has a lot more to do with certain people wanting Ross out rather than responding to public response.  As a former director of the BBC said this morning, there are 100s of 1000s of people who thoroughly enjoy Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and by suspending or sacking him you are also depriving those people of a very popular TV programme.  In fact I feel like complaining about BBC24 - I watch it to get NEWS, and being the BBC I hope to get serious news, not celebrity drivel.  There are many far more important issues that could be discussed and covered than this - for example, Did the Americans launch an air attack in Syria and kill women and children or is this hype?  What were Gordon and Sarky discussing in Paris?  And why the hell was Gordon Brown making comment on Ross and Brand - he has much more important matters to deal with.

All of these programmes go out late at night and the standard and style of their comedy is well known.  If you don't like it DON'T WATCH IT.  My old dad thinks the Ross is crude and common and has only ever listened to one of his programmes.  He has plenty of other choice and even he yesterday said that much too much is being made of this.

[Russethouse]

I'm sorry but I would suggest that Mr Ross in particular is paid FAR too much to have vast portions of the audience switching over or off. There are better interviewers and better comedians - at the end of the Jonathan Ross show you may nothing new about his interviewee, but you will know plenty about Mr Ross.

Yes, the producers, editors ect should also be sanctioned.

I think this has just illustrated that much of the British public has said 'so far and no further' - we've had enough of these low standards.

[Clair]

I stopped watching JR's chat show a while back but I do still enjoy his "Film" program.

As for RB, I just cannot figure out which cave he crawled out of, not that I care to know anyway. The guy is so repulsive-looking I do my best to avoid watching him. That's easy enough, as he tends to appear on programs I have no interest in.

[Théière]

[quote user="oscar"]

There were only two complaints when the programme was aired well over a week ago. Nothing was said about it until the Mail made a big issue about it.  Andrew Sachs presumably picked up his ansaphone messages before the programme was aired - 2 days after the messages were left - and didn't do anything to stop the broadcast.  [/quote]

You are wrong, he did contact the beeb and requested it was cut out of the programme.

There is a big difference in the contex: He slept with her, which is ok and He F*cked her which sounds crude and base.

J Ross and R brand overstepped and did not have the sense of decency to have the text cut themselves, If I were on 18 million, I might just have called into work and asked to have it cut based on losing a very lucrative job.

Still someone will F*ck J Ross's daughter lets hope they shout about it in the press and media, its Karma. Hopefull R Brand.

[Gardian]

Just noticed that Russethouse has passed the magical 10k posts barrier.

Surely this is far more important and newsworthy than the objectionable pranks of those two idiots?

p.s. Do you get a Medaille d'Or from Archant, Gay? 

[Théière]

magical 10k posts barrier?

Why what happens to those that don't make it?

[Bugsy]

Well done RH......................................gobby git........................[:D][:D][:D][:D]

[Russethouse]

Should I ask for a 100% increase in salary ? [:D] [:D]