[Ruth]

After the show, 2 people complained and said that they thought it was offensive. Since then, the matter has received much publicity and there has been about 15,000 complaints, not to mention the Daily Mail practically calling for Brand and Ross to have their heads chopped off. (I HATE the Daily Mail - who the heck do they think they are, trying to tell us what we should be outraged by, what minorities we should hate, what is wrong with Britain today all according to their narrow minded views)?

My take on the situation is this:

Yes, what they did was offensive, tacky and rude. Yes, they should (and have) apologise to Andrew Sachs. However, the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. The show was pre-recorded, and somebody at the BBC cleared it for broadcast. At the time, only two people complained. But folks love a good bandwagon to jump on, and since then 15,000 have complained. I would like to know how many of those 15,000 actually listened to the show and were offended at the time (as opposed to being told that they should be offended, or looking the clip up on YouTube, where you can find the broadcast).

Georgina Baillie (the grand-daughter in question) is a member of a dance troupe called the Satanic Sluts. Now, I do not think that being a member of an extremely provocative dance troupe means that she should have her sex life broadcast to all and sundry - certainly not. But I do find it interesting that after the broadcast, the Satanic Sluts MySpace page actually thanked Russell Brand for giving them a 'shout out' on his show. Clearly, Georgina and her band were not offended. But now there is tons of publicity surrounding the matter, she has suddenly decided that she is furious as well. Hypocritical much?

I like Russell Brand. I do think he went too far on this occasion, but I admit to finding him very funny in the right environment. As for Jonathan Ross - meh. He used to be a good presenter, but these days, all he seems to do is lech over the female guests on his show, and is far more interested in hogging the limelight constantly when he is interviewing someone, rather than letting them have their 10 minutes of attention. I do not think he is worth the £18million he receives from the Beeb every year. But that is all a separate issue. I feel that Brand and Ross behaved like a pair of silly schoolchildren. What they did was wrong. But outrage; fury? I got nothing in that area.