The resignation letter | BBC Trust statement | Profile: From pipe and slippers to obscene calls

The lewd phone calls scandal that has engulfed the BBC tonight claimed the head of the controller of Radio 2 as the corporation announced it had suspended Jonathan Ross until next year without pay.

Lesley Douglas sent her letter of resignation to Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, this evening following the broadcast of prank calls recorded by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross.

Brand and Ross left abusive telephone messages for Andrew Sachs, the actor who played Manuel in Fawlty Towers, and the messages were then broadcast on a late-night Radio 2 programme prompting tens of thousands of complaints.

Brand has already resigned from his regular presenting slot on the UK's most popular station.

Tonight, following a four hour meeting of the BBC’s governing board, Ross was suspended from all broadcasting for the BBC for 12 weeks, ending in mid-January 2009. The suspension is expected to cost Ross £1.3 million.

Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, said: “The ultimate editorial responsibility for BBC programmes lies with producers and editorial managers. The consequences of errors of judgement are therefore more serious for managers.

“Nonetheless, Jonathan Ross’s contribution to this edition of the Russell Brand show was utterly unacceptable and cannot be allowed to go uncensured or without sanction. A twelve week suspension is an exceptional step, but I believe it is a proportionate response to Jonathan’s role in this unhappy affair.

“Jonathan Ross has already made a comprehensive and unreserved personal apology to Andrew Sachs and his grand-daughter. I believe that he fully understands the seriousness of what has happened. I have made very clear to him the central importance of the clause in his contract about not bringing the BBC into disrepute. We agree that nothing like this must ever happen again and that tight discipline will be required for the future.”

Ms Douglas sent her letter of resignation to Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, this evening.

“It is a matter of the greatest possible sadness to me that a programme on my network has been the cause of such a controversy,” she wrote.

“I would like to take this opportunity to offer my personal apology to Andrew Sachs and his family and to the audience for what has happened.

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