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Ross’s £18m contract hangs in the balance
Danny Brierley and Louise Jury29.10.08
THE prank could be the nail in the coffin for Jonathan Ross's £18 million three-year broadcasting deal.
Although it is only months since an internal BBC report cleared management of overpaying for talent, the furore surrounding the calls to Andrew Sachs has renewed the pressure on the broadcaster and Ross's massive pay deal is likely to come under new scrutiny.
In earlier times, Ross — who earns an extra £100,000 a year from the BBC for presenting the Baftas — could have turned to the Corporation's commercial rivals to come up trumps if the BBC wavered over finding the cash needed to keep him.
But these are tough times in the television market. Carol Vorderman quit Channel 4's Countdown after 26 years this summer after being presented with a 90 per cent pay cut ultimatum over her £1.2 million salary.
Given the widespread public disapproval over the lapse in taste and judgment from Ross — as the senior partner to Russell Brand — it may be harder for the BBC to justify his pay deal to licence fee payers.
Ross was due to start renegotiations over his contract next year, and any attempt to sack him would be likely to involve fierce battles between his lawyers and the BBC.
The financial implications for Brand are harder to predict. He is said to earn around £200,000 a year from the BBC. Even if both men are cleared by the inquiry now urgently under way, Brand has upped his reputation for risqué unpredictability.
There will be potential employers happy to court the controversy, particularly as younger listeners have made clear their support for Ross and Brand. But there may be others who decide to avoid the risk.
The fallout for the pair comes as the woman at the centre of the furore called for them to be sacked. Georgina Baillie, the 23-year-old granddaughter of Andrew Sachs and the object of obscene messages left on the 78-year-old's telephone answering machine and broadcast on Brand's Radio 2 show, said she was “utterly horrified and disgusted” and that the family was considering lodging a formal complaint to police.
Miss Baillie, a former lover of Brand's, told The Sun: “My grandfather is really upset and wants the situation to end. I will be speaking to him to ask whether we should complain to the police and we'll be making the decision as a family.”
She added that Ross and Brand “should pay for what they've done with their jobs”.
Miss Baillie – who dances under the stage name Voluptua in burlesque troupe The Satanic Sluts – said she had been involved in a brief relationship with Brand and had slept with him three times. But she said he “betrayed” her by broadcasting the fact in the telephone calls to her grandfather, who played Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
She added that the pair, who she described as “beyond contempt”, also telephoned her in an attempt to cover their tracks.
“They seemed to be trying to make a joke of it but I could tell that they were a bit concerned at the same time,” she said.
But she focused her criticism on the BBC editorial staff, saying: “They've shown an appalling lack of judgment.”
Brand has sent a personal letter of apology to Sachs. Ross sent a letter and flowers.
Reader views (26)
This incident with Ross and Brand is providing insight into the public's real opinion of the BBC (not what the BBC tells us the public thinks of itself).
In our perverse system of taxation in the United Kingdom, the so-called state broadcaster is permitted to charge our citizens a compulsory tax (disgustingly called a "licence fee") for channels those people may never even watch, while at the same time carrying on a successful £multi-million international business?
Businesses in the real world are not permitted to charge a tax to every household in the country to help cover their operating costs (whether people use their product or not). If they were, it would cause an overnight economic meltdown and total public chaos.
Why should the BBC, in the modern day of 2007, be permitted to continue to operate under this immoral and hypocritical contradiction?
It is long past time that the licence fee/BBC as it is should be scrapped. Charging people this indefensible tax is simply scandalous.
- John, England
Jonathon ROSS is a radio legend. Sack him at your peril!
I'm sure the grandaughter is only too pleased for this to drag on so she can do well in the next round of 'celebrity' shows..
Who is she anyway?
- Phil, Kent, UK
One would never ever watch trash such as Ross and Brand anyway. The sooner the BBC is done away with the better.
- Annabelle, london
Imagine the tax that Mr. Ross pays on that salary. All for the benefit of the country (although given that our Government goes and uses it to bail out it's own mess is another matter).
If we did not have high paid folk like Mr. Ross, then all our own tax bills would raise significantly.
- Martyn Drake, Woking, UK
I have no sympathy for either of these men,no matter what this girls name or reputation is, they should not have said what they did on air,and then to try and cover their tracks by phoneing her just shows what cowardly lowlife rats they are.At least brand who in my opinion is totally untalented has done the decent thing and resigned.Ross who is grossly overpaid,should do the same,whoever at the bbc decided that he was worth 6 million a year of licence payers money should also be hauled over the coals and forced to resign.The general standard of t.v and radio in the u.k has declined in recent years,and to expect the majority of decent hard working brits to pay the exorbitant price of £135 per year for a service that has become stale and "bland" is a joke in itself.At the end of the day these two no marks have dug out an old man to bully and have now to rightly suffer the consequenses of their actions.
- Jim Ex Pat,N1, thailand
If Ross is not sacked I will refuse to renew my licence as Im not prepared to pay towards his salary and by refusing to pay my licence I will make a small but valid point. It makes no difference if Sachs accepts their unreal apologies the issues of what they said on BBC airwaves is not acceptable.If he remains in his overpaid position then the bosses at BBC are not fit for purpose.
- Patrick Mc Crossan, London
Ross is a crude individual whose so-called humour is actually sarcasm at the expense of others. He should be sacked. The BBC and the country, he will find, will be none the worse without him.
- Neil, Gloucestershire, England.
Brand must be 1 of the dirty'st looking people on tv a real scruff who isnt even funny, its beyond belief how these drug users or ex get these contracts, as for woss or ross it makes my blood boil knowing my licence fee is going towards his wages, i wouldnt mind knowing who offers such vast amounts and for what.
- Tony, merseyside
Ross is an overblown, self-inflated turd and should have been sacked years ago. The best thing about his show is the musical wufters, and they are ghastly!
- Peter Johns, Nice, France
For 6 million a year I suppose they're looking for more than a foul-mouth, but viewers must have very low expectations if they're willing to pay for this kind of "entertainment".
- Neil, London UK
All will be forgiven I'm sure, and the granddaughter will probably be on Celebrity Big Brother next edition - so she will do just fine! The only thing I am pleased about, is that Mr. J. Ross is a bit too big for his flashy boots, and a rap on the knuckles will hopefully humble him a little. I hated his interview with Nicole Kidman - he was a bullying sexist thug. So Mr. Ross - think again if you feel you are invincible. Going down a peg or two could save us all from your big mouth for a while.
- Lizzie Pardonneymoi, Weymouth
Ross and Brand are loose canons, it was bound to happen sooner or later and it will again unless the BBC adopts a decent code of conduct.
If the BBC does not sack them then it will send a very wrong message to the many other boundary pushes who can only get a laugh if the material is gross, real humour is now hard to find.
- Graham, Colcester Essex
The BBC might have their work cut out trying to sack him given that they made an editorial decision to broadcast the piece - if they wanted to avoid offending the public they only needed to pull the piece and tell him to tone it down. They did not, they endorsed him and the responsibility is shared.
- Michael, London
Dom, what do you mean she is no angel? This is not about her behaviour. It is about the flagrant abuse of broadcasting positions by both Brand and Ross. I have seen brand on TV mocking people for as long as I have seen him on Tv. Who needs him? Certainly not Andrew Sachs, the innocent party.
- Gary, Aarhus Denmark
Do you not think that this 'Georgina Baille' is following this all through purely for the free publicity? She is an aspiring model- now everyone knows her name and her face, where as she was a virtual unknown a few days ago.
She's in a 'troupe' called The Satanic Sluts- so i hardly think she can be offended by Brand/Ross' comments!
She's milking the press and everyone is falling for it- this has become so over-exposes and over-exaggerated it's laughable.
- Paul C, London, England
I think this has all been blown out of proportion. I agree the content of the answephone messages were pretty horrific, but at the end of the day, that is Brand's style of humour. Sach's was even asked if the recordings could be used as it was a pre-recorded show. I think Brand will resign as he has bigger fish to fry than a late night Radio 2 show. Ross will probably be told off and that will be that
- Phil, Nottingham
The recent crude and obscene broadcast of the BBC's... Brand and Ross on Radio2, which has justifiable outraged parts of British society. Why it has taken the Elite members of the Beebs management this long to react is even more disturbing. It sadly demonstrates a complete contempt for the British public, by a very privileged group of people in our society., the 'untouchables' those that live in a parallel universe.
- Tomak Patek, Edinburgh
Just because she's 'no angel' doesn't give people the right to harrass her elderly relatives! And since when did having a career as a burlesque dancer mean that it can be open season on people throwing all kinds of insults at you and your family on national radio?!
- Anne, London
Going near that poodle-headed dirtbird would qualify as 'pretty iffy' to me tbh.
- Chris Downs, Newcastle
"Iffie" and "no angel" are not the point. Ross has no right to use his obscenely overpaid status to "slag off" any individual on a private matter over the airwaves by way of a phone call, whether it be to a well-known and respected television personality of mature years or to any other member of the public, and it is right that he has been suspended by the BBC. Whatever the context of the relationship, past or present, between Ms Baillie and Mr Brand, the BBC licence payer should not have to finance a self-obsessed, middle-aged celebrity's immature, obscene and desperate grab at being funny.
- Pat, East Kent UK
This situation is annoying me so much!
People need to get a grip and focus on more important matters.
Also, if people had bothered to listen to Russell's show previous to this debacle they would realise that he has said much worse than this!
This girl will be rubbing her hands at this exposure she has got. From what I've heard, she is quite the fame hungry type.
- Claire, Essex, UK
She's "no angel"? Who IS an angel?! What does that have to do with two comedians leaving rude and crude messages on her grandfather's answerphone about her sex life? Even Brand mentioned that she'd asked him not to mention their link in front of her grandfather, and just look what he did. The idea that she's in some way brought this on herself is ridiculous in the extreme - everyone has the right to live their lives as they please without having their names sullied over the airwaves.
- Ewa, London
3 years ago, my son and a colleague made a few posts in their own free time on a website for Sainsbury's employees. Some of the comments, while not directed at named individuals could have been termed "offensive". The site did NOT belong to Sainsburys but someone complained and they were duly detected and summararily dismissed for gross misconduct from their mediocre £180 per week jobs. Their lives were in tatters. They were both big enough to admit that it was their own fault even though Sainsburys could have had a word and stopped it but they were ruthless. Now here we have 2 multi millionaires using their employers time and equipment to malign a respectable man and his granddaughter, and what happens a suspension in other words a smack on the wrist and don't do it again.
- Steve, Derry N Ireland
Robin, can you explain exactly what you mean by referring to Georgina Baillie as 'pretty iffy'?
- Frank, London, UK
She's no Angel!
- Dom, London
This young women sounds pretty iffy but even so she shouldn't have to suffer the revelation to the public of a horrible mistake she made.
The BBC should apologise to her in the only true way possible - sack Ross and Brand.
- Robin, Brentford, UK
