Transcript: the calls made by Brand and Ross

It started as a dribble but became a torrent of outrage.

In the week after the now infamous episode of Russell Brand’s Radio 2 show was broadcast, the complaints to the BBC could be counted on one hand. But after the phone calls — in which Brand and his fellow BBC presenter Jonathan Ross deluged the answering machine of the veteran actor Andrew Sachs with four sexually explicit messages — were highlighted by a Sunday newspaper, the public response was immediate.

By Monday morning the complaints to the BBC stood at about 500. By the evening, it was up to 1,500. By yesterday afternoon that figure stood at 10,000, leading even the Prime Minister to condemn the corporation.

In picking on Sachs, beloved by the public for his performance as Manuel, the clueless Spanish waiter in Fawlty Towers, Brand and Ross touched a raw nerve. How was it acceptable, the public wanted to know, to barrack a 78-year-old man with sexually charged phone calls about his 23-year-old granddaughter?

The BBC has acknowledged that the programme, broadcast on October 18, was unacceptable. But it insists that it will take no action until an inquiry by Tim Davie, its director of audio and music, establishes exactly how the show was given the go-ahead.

BBC sources said that Mr Davie had been instructed to produce a report as quickly as possible. It will be presented a week tomorrow to the editorial standards committee of the BBC Trust, the corporation’s internal watchdog. Mr Davie said last night: “We’re going to have a full investigation and take the appropriate action.”

The trustees will then use that report to set down a framework within which Mark Thompson, the Director-General, must make a formal submission to a full meeting of the trust, to be held on November 20. The 12 members of the board, appointed by the Queen, will then determine what internal sanctions to impose. Yesterday none would comment. “This is far too sensitive,” one trustee told The Times.

“We’ve been told to say nothing.”

Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, said yesterday that it would also investigate the transmission of the programme. The regulator will want to know how the BBC’s compliance systems failed. After the recording of The Russell Brand Show, the programme’s producer, Nic Philps, 25, a vicar’s son, would have been expected to fill in a compliance form detailing whether it had any offensive content. If Mr Philps judged that it did, he would have had to explain how he justified offending listeners, as well as whether an announcement before transmission that it contained offensive material was necessary.

Both Mr Davie and Ofcom will want to know whether that form was completed correctly and, if it was, who from the more senior echelons of the BBC countersigned it, as is required.

What Mr Thompson will be praying is that it was not Lesley Douglas, the Controller of Radio 2 and 6 Music. An error by a relatively small-fry staff member can be explained away. If the top dog is involved, that is not so easy.

The maximum sanction that Ofcom can hand down is a fine of £250,000, but insiders at the watchdog suggested that any fine was likely to be much smaller, perhaps in the low tens of thousands. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that it had also received complaints about the comments.

For their part, Ross, who is paid £6 million a year, and Brand, who is said to receive more than £200,000, appear to be on fairly safe ground. Although they made the calls to Sachs’s answering machine, in which Ross exclaimed that Brand had “f***ed” the actor’s granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, they did not make the decision to broadcast the material, which was pre-recorded. Both Ross, 47, and Brand, 33, have issued personal apologies to Sachs and sent flowers. Neither would comment yesterday. Brand merely repeated “Hare Krishna” to journalists outside his home in North London.

Ms Baillie, a member of the Satanic Sluts Extreme, a dance troupe that promises “four of the sexiest depraved London jezebels” who perform “violent, horrific and sexy burlesque shows”, called last night for both men to be sacked. Talking about her grandfather, she said: “We’re very close and I can’t tell you how much it hurts to know they were so unkind to such a sweet person. They should at least pay for what they’ve done with their jobs.”

She admitted that she had slept with Brand three times in late 2006 and that she had not seen him since early this year. “My grandfather is really upset,” she told The Sun. “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.”

The main players

Georgina Baillie Sachs’s granddaughter, who has described Brand as a friend. An actress and model, she performs as part of a burlesque group called Satanic Sluts. She is “angry and upset” about the messages

Andrew Sachs Actor best known for playing Manuel in Fawlty Towers. Was “deeply upset” by the messages and saddened they were broadcast

Meg Poole Sachs’s agent, she complained to the BBC on his behalf

Max Clifford Publicist acting for Baillie, who said she is “upset because her grandad is very upset and she thinks the world of him”

Addison Creswell Ross’s agent, who negotiated his £18 million deal with the BBC

Mark Thompson The BBC Director-General, who takes ultimate responsibilty for the corporation’s output

Sir Michael Lyons Oversees the corporation’s activities as chairman of the BBC Trust. He will decide whether to hold a full-scale inquiry

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