HOWZAT

“It is with enormous regret that I have decided to resign as Controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 Music and of Popular Music. This is my decision alone.”

The BBC Trust issued an apology tonight after its meeting, convened by Mr Thompson after he cut his holiday short to return to London and deal with the crisis.

“The Trust is dismayed both that the offensive comments broadcast on the Russell Brand Show on 18th October fell so far short of audiences’ legitimate expectations and by the deplorable intrusion into the privacy of Mr Sachs and his granddaughter,” The BBC Trust said in a statement.

“On behalf of the BBC, the Trust offers a full and unreserved apology to Andrew Sachs, Georgina Baillie and the rest of his family. The Trust extends its apologies to licence fee payers as a whole.”

The Tories called today for a full Commons debate on the BBC's handling of the row after accusations of high-handedness.

The row is over part of Brand's show in which he and Ross telephoned Mr Sachs, 78, and left messages for him after he failed to answer. At one point Ross announced that Brand had slept with Mr Sachs's 23-year-old granddaughter.

Of the estimated 400,000 people who heard the segment, only two saw fit to complain to the BBC, one of them Mr Sachs himself. But the story gained momentum after it was picked up in the weekend newspapers and the BBC today registered its 30,000th complaint.

The corporation says that it does not keep tallies of complaints made to it, but in terms of its recent history this row now ranks second only to the corporation's decision in 2005 to broadcast Jerry Springer the Opera, which prompted 55,000 calls and letters of complaint after a campaign led by a Christian group angered by the show's obscene language.

As the BBC Trust met today, Theresa May, Shadow Leader of the House, used business questions to press for a full Commons debate on the row and the BBC's handling of it.

"There has been public outrage at the behaviour of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand yet for several days the BBC seemed like a rabbit caught in the headlights, unable to act," Ms May told MPs.

"We need a debate in this House on the BBC’s handling of this incident because licence fee-payers have a right to know what went wrong and how similar incidents will be avoided in the future.”

In his resignation statement, Brand, a former heroin addict, paid tribute to Ross, calling him a "great broadcaster”. He said that Ross had been “silly” but “was not malicious” and added that he was a “lovely, kind, gentle man who did something a little bit silly”.

Brand said: “We made a mistake, crossed the line, ... What we did was wrong.”

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