Channel 4 boss calls Russell Brand allegations 'disgusting and saddening'
TV bosses from Channel 4 and the BBC have been speaking at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Cambridge Convention 2023 amid the allegations made against Russell Brand, which the comedian strongly denies.
Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon has addressed the allegations levelled at Brand saying she found the claims "disgusting and saddening". Ms Mahon spoke as she joined BBC director-general Tim Davie at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Cambridge Convention 2023 today [September 20] in King’s College Cambridge.
Brand was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse in a joint investigation with The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches, which aired on Saturday at 9pm. Four women spoke out to make claims of incidents with Brand. The former Hollywood actor said he 'refutes' the allegations in a YouTube video statement and insisted that all the relationships he has had were 'consensual'.
Speaking about the claims today, Ms Mahon said: "The allegations made against Russell Brand are horrendous and as a CEO of Channel 4 and as a woman in our industry, I found the behaviours described in Dispatches and The Sunday Times and The Times articles disgusting and saddening. The allegations of course need to be followed up further and we and the BBC and Banijay are busy investigating."
Russell Brand previously worked on Channel 4 shows like Big Brother's Big Mouth (REX/Shutterstock)She added that her channel had invited anyone that knew about such behaviour to come to them directly as well as noting that they had set up a process for people to contact the broadcaster anonymously if they needed to. "They are not empty words or gestures from all of us, they are what is meant by our duty of care", she continued.
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Ms Mahon added: "We will seek to find out who knew, who was told what and what was or wasn’t referred up. But what is clear to me is that terrible behaviour towards women was historically tolerated in our industry. And the clips as well provide a rather very shocking jolt when ones realises what appeared on air not that long ago."
Following the allegations made in the investigation by Dispatches and The Sunday Times, the BBC confirmed that they are looking into allegations of misconduct by Brand during his time working for the corporation as a matter of urgency. The dad-of-two worked on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music programmes between 2006 and 2008. Brand's content on Channel 4, where he worked on shows such as Big Brother's Big Mouth, has been removed by the broadcaster following the allegations being made public on Saturday.
Meanwhile, entertainment company Banijay UK, which owns the production company behind Big Brother and its spin offs, also launched an urgent internal investigation into the allegations. Following the allegations andBrand's denial, Banijay UK released a statement to announce an urgent internal probe.
A statement from Banijay, provided to The Mirror, read: "In light of the very serious allegations raised by Dispatches and the Times and The Sunday Times investigation relating to the alleged serious misconduct of Russell Brand while presenting shows produced by Endemol in 2004 and 2005, Banijay UK has launched an urgent internal investigation and will co-operate with any requests for information from broadcaster partners and external agencies. We also encourage anybody who feels they were affected by Brand's behaviour while working on these productions to contact us in confidence."
The conference comes after it was announced that the BBC’s director of editorial complaints Peter Johnston has been appointed to lead the review into Russell Brand’s time at the corporation, according to BBC News. The review is said to look "at any complaints against Brand, what was known, and what was done".
Following the initial claims, a BBC spokesperson said: "The documentary and associated reports contained serious allegations, spanning a number of years. Russell Brand worked on BBC radio programmes between 2006 and 2008 and we are urgently looking into the issues raised."
On Monday, The Times reported that a woman claimed Brand used the BBC’s car service to pick her up from school when she was 16 so she could visit his home. The broadcaster hopes to release an interim update on the review "within weeks", BBC News added on Tuesday.
Addressing his fans via a video shared on YouTube and social media ahead of Dispatches airing on Saturday, Brand said: "Now, this isn't the usual type of video we make on this channel where we critique, attack and undermine the news in all its corruption because in this story, I am the news. I've received two extremely disturbing letters or a letter and an email. One from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn't be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel.
"But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, often very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. And as I've written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous.
"Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that. Then almost too transparent, and I'm being transparent about it now as well. And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play? Particularly when we've seen coordinated media attacks before, like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn't approve of, and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language.
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"I'm aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while, watch out, Russell. They're coming from you. You're getting too close to the truth. Russell Brand did not kill himself. I know that a year ago there was a spate of articles. Russell Brand’s a conspiracy theorist, Russell Brand’s right wing. I'm aware of news media making phone calls, sending letters to people I know for ages and ages. It's being clear to me, or at least it feels to me like there's a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces and these kind of voices. And I mean, my voice along with your voice.
"I don't mind them using my books and my standout to talk about my promiscuous consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations. Also, it's worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narrative that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently, in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack.
"Now, I don't wanna get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I'm being attacked and plainly they're working very closely together. We are obviously going to look into this matter 'cause it's very, very serious. In the meantime, I want you to stay close, stay awake, but more important than any of that, if you can, please stay free."
* If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
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