BBC apology

On 30 October 2008, the BBC Trust announced a range of actions it required of BBC management in relation to a serious editorial breach on the Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2 broadcast on 18 October.

The BBC Trust instructed that a broadcast apology be made to licence fee payers on BBC Radio 2 for the serious breaches, the terms of which it was to approve, and at a time of its direction.

The Trust's Editorial Standards Committee yesterday approved the following apology to be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Saturday 8 November 2008 at 10.03am and 9.03pm:

"On 18 October, the BBC broadcast an exchange between Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on the Russell Brand show on Radio 2. This concerned the actor Andrew Sachs and his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. Some of this exchange was left on the voicemail of Mr Sachs. The conversation was grossly offensive and an unacceptable intrusion into the private lives of both Mr Sachs and Ms Baillie. It was a serious breach of editorial standards, and should never have been recorded or broadcast. The BBC would like to apologise unreservedly to Mr Sachs, Ms Baillie and to our audiences as licence fee payers."

The timing of the apology relates to the times when the Russell Brand show (9.03pm) and the Jonathan Ross Radio 2 show (10.03am) would normally be broadcast on Radio 2.

(courtesy of the BBC Press Office)