Russell Brand case: TV's misogyny 'has not gone away', insiders say

The misogyny and sexism that pervaded British television in the mid-2000s, and allowed Russell Brand's behaviour to go unchallenged, have not gone away, insiders say, after a trial that exposed criminality and led to a conviction.

Naomi Harvey, a researcher on Big Brother's Big Mouth, the Channel 4 discussion show Brand hosted, noticed his habit of asking a runner — the production's most junior person — to get phone numbers from female audience members and pass them to him. Then a woman invited for drinks by Brand after the show phoned her, distraught. 'All I remember is being really taken aback that she was so upset,' Harvey told The Guardian. She and two colleagues reported it to their next boss.

The episode is minor beside the criminality exposed at Brand's trial, but it forms part of a culture that indulged him. The case has raised difficult questions for the BBC, Channel 4 and the production companies that worked with him. During the trial, one accuser said she had not spoken earlier because 'the media industry protects its own'. A former MTV employee said she did not report an incident because she was scared; Brand was famous and 'a big asset' to the channel.

'Open secrets'

Rumours about Brand circulated on the standup circuit before he reached television, but serious allegations emerged only in 2023, after a joint investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches and the Sunday Times. England's strict defamation laws played a part, said Charlie Moloney, co-author of McNae's Essential Law for Journalists, describing 'open secrets' that 'fall apart' under courtroom scrutiny.

There were public red flags. On BBC Radio 2 in 2008, Brand laughed about exposing himself to a woman working in the same Los Angeles building and said he wanted to 'unleash hell' on a newsreader's thighs. In a 2007 interview with Jimmy Savile, he joked about sending a female assistant to him naked. He left the BBC after 'Sachsgate', when he and Jonathan Ross left obscene messages on the actor Andrew Sachs's answerphone.

Reviews and apologies

The BBC, Channel 4 and Banijay UK, owner of the production company behind Big Brother's Big Mouth, all reviewed how they handled concerns. Banijay found no formal complaints but said informal ones — including about runners being asked for audience members' numbers — were 'not properly escalated or adequately addressed'. The BBC apologised after finding people with concerns believed Brand 'would always get his own way' and stayed silent. Channel 4 found a complaint had not reached senior management. All said safeguarding and whistleblowing had improved.

A BBC spokesperson said the thoughts of everyone there were with 'the brave women who came forward', adding: 'There can be no place for the abuse of power.' Alex Mahon, the former Channel 4 executive who ordered the Brand report, said bad behaviour towards women had been tolerated for too long: 'People don't stay silent because they don't know it's wrong. They stay silent because they don't trust what happens if they speak.' She said more than half of people who experience bullying or harassment in the industry still do not report it. 'We're not finished.'

A long-awaited online portal for workers across the UK's creative industries to report harassment and abuse has launched. But insiders say the Brand case cannot be dismissed as a relic of lads' mags and raucous reality TV. One said the rule of TV 'is and will always be: say nothing, don't rock the boat'. Harvey said broadcasters seemed more willing to listen, but feared the same power imbalances persisted, with freelancers especially worried about losing work.

Source: The Guardian World.