Have your say: has BBC lost editorial integrity? | Full transcript

The BBC issued an unreserved apology to Andrew Sachs, the Fawlty Towers star, yesterday for airing a radio programme in which Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand left the actor sexually explicit telephone messages about his granddaughter.

The corporation, which has received more than 1,500 complaints about the incident, also said that it would investigate how the “unacceptable and offensive” programme, which was recorded, was approved for broadcast.

Ross and Brand, two of the BBC’s highest paid stars, made the comments about Sachs’s granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, on Brand’s Radio 2 show last week, after attempts to telephone the actor for an arranged interview were answered by his voicemail service. Brand told listeners: “What Andrew doesn’t know is, I’ve slept with his granddaughter.” As he left a message for the actor, Ross, 47, shouted: “He f***** your granddaughter.” Ross also speculated that Brand had “enjoyed” Georgina on a swing, and the pair also joked that Sachs, 78, could kill himself over the incident.

The actor, who played the Spanish waiter Manuel in Fawlty Towers, complained to the BBC about the messages, which Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, has been asked to study.

Meg Poole, Sachs’s agent, said the BBC had replied. “It’s a perfectly good apology,” she said. “It is the response we wanted.” Ross and Brand are also understood to be preparing personal apologies.

It emerged yesterday that Baillie is a member of the Satanic Sluts Extreme, a dance troupe that describe themselves as “four of the sexiest depraved London jezebels”, who perform “violent, horrific and sexy burlesque shows”. Baillie, 23, who goes by the name “Voluptua”, has auditioned for The Sun’s Page 3, and has posted images of herself on social networking websites in provocative poses. She describes herself as a “swinger”, who dances in a cage at a nightclub.

Brand has talked about the Satanic Sluts on his radio show. David Baddiel, the comedian and author, who co-hosted the programme for a week, recounted on air how he encountered Baillie at Brand’s home. “So I came round. You were in your pants, yellow Y-fronts. You opened the door in a sort of headmaster’s cape, which was a bit weird. I said, ‘They’re still here, aren’t they?’ You said, ‘They’re still here.’

“So we went upstairs to your study, and the Satanic Sluts every so often would come up and say, ‘Russell, have you finished?’ And you would say, ‘No, no, it’s fine’, meaning, ‘Can you stay here because I shall be visiting you later?’

“The key moment for me was one of the Satanic Sluts said to me that her grandfather was Andrew Sachs . . . She said, ‘Oh don’t tell him I was here’. I thought, ‘That’s not going to happen, is it? I’m not going to ring up Manuel and say, ‘Guess where I saw your grand-daughter?’”

Baillie could not be contacted yesterday. A spokeswoman for Salvation Films, which manages the Satanic Sluts, said she was returning from performing in Vienna and did not wish to comment.

Speaking outside his home in northwest London yesterday, Sachs, 78, said: “People ask me if I’m angry, well, yes, but not half as angry as Georgina. That’s where the apology should be directed.” A spokeswoman for Sachs said that she believed he was aware of his granddaughter’s job. “They’re a very close family,” she said.

Ross and Brand could face a police investigation for making abusive phone calls. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police was not aware of any complaints.

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