The innocent victim
First things first: Russell Brand is a loose cannon and Jonathan Ross is a twat.
These things were known when they were employed by the BBC. They are both rent-a-mouths whose risque and often juvenile humour gave the otherwise ultra-conservative Radio 2 the illusion of being hip and daring.
The furore over the messages left on Andrew Sachs answering machine broadcast on their show is therefore both entirely predictable and hugely exaggerated.
The irony is that when the show was first aired there were practically no complaints. Only when the self appointed arbitrators of taste and decency – the even more ultra-conservative Daily Mail – took them to task did the shit hit the proverbial.
In other words the controversy is almost entirely manufactured by a tabloid that affects to maintain a squeaky clean moral code while supporting the pornography of rampant capitalism.
At the centre of the story is actor Andrew Sach’s granddaughter Georgina Baille who doesn’t deny that she slept with Brand (who hasn’t?!). Ross and Brand joked about the fact that Brand had “fucked her” and used a condom which is hardly exposing intimate bedroom secrets. When I first heard the story I imagined Baille as a prim and innocent women drawn into the public eye by these ‘nasty’ men.
But let’s be honest – does she really look like a blushing violet? She is someone who once auditioned as a Page 3 girl for The Sun and is described by the Mail as a “burlesque dancer” who performs in a girl group called the Satanic Sluts.
As she tells of her ‘shock and outrage’ she is crying all the way to the bank.
Brand and Ross’ show was purile but also typical of the Beeb’s dumbed down standards. The whole thing is a storm in a teacup with the only silver lining being that it might mean we finally see the back of Jonathan Ross.
Like this:
Like Loading...
