EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand co-hosted one of the BBC‘s flagship live television events just months after an employee re-filed a decade-old complaint about his conduct.
In March 2017, Brand was handed a presenting role on BBC Studios-produced telethon Comic Relief, during which he introduced new comedy acts in a bid to raise money for charity.
The Comic Relief booking came after a BBC employee decided in 2016 to re-raise a complaint they originally made in 2007 about Brand urinating in a cup in front of colleagues during the making of his Radio 2 show.
As part of the complaint, the employee also raised broader concerns about Brand’s conduct, including rumors that he would bring “groups of girls” to BBC premises. Brand has always denied wrongdoing.
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The revelation shows that the BBC missed repeated warnings about Brand’s behavior, that complaints were not confined to an isolated historical event, and that the issues were a matter of live concern given that the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star was still being hired as a presenter by the corporation. The BBC has apologized for mishandling the complaints.
The 2016 grievance was disclosed for the first time on Thursday in a BBC review of Brand’s conduct during his time working for the UK national broadcaster. The review was carried out by Peter Johnston, the BBC’s director of editorial complaints.
The employee in question originally raised their grievance in 2007 and, soon after, the BBC admitted in a statement to a British newspaper that Brand had urinated in a studio. Nothing was done to investigate the staffer’s concerns and no action was taken against Brand, according to Johnston’s review.
The employee raised their concerns for a second time to an external workplace culture review in 2013 led by barrister Dinah Rose, though it is unclear if the BBC was made aware of this follow-up complaint.
The employee made their third complaint in 2016, per Johnston’s review. The BBC case manager who handled the grievance decided it was “not possible” to investigate the 2007 incident further because it would have “required speaking to individuals external to the BBC,” which was not normal practice.
The BBC apologized to the employee for the way it handled their complaint in 2007. Soon after, Brand landed the Comic Relief presenting gig.
Johnston’s report does not say if the BBC investigated the wider allegations raised by the employee, including the claim that Brand brought girls onto BBC premises. The review also fails to make clear if information about Brand’s conduct was shared with executives involved in commissioning content and booking presenters.
When Brand was handed the hosting role on Comic Relief, Charlotte Moore, now the BBC’s chief content officer, was ultimately responsible for BBC One. Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, was in charge of BBC Studios, the production arm that produced the telethon. The BBC declined to say if Moore or Davie were made aware of the formal complaint in 2016.
Penis flashing incident
Johnston’s review also revealed that another incident involving Brand was raised with managers in the BBC News division in 2019. An employee flagged that a woman, identified as “Olivia” in Johnston’s report, had alleged that Brand followed her into a bathroom and flashed his penis. The alleged incident took place in 2008 at the BBC’s LA bureau.
The employee raised Olivia’s story with their line manager, who in turn escalated it to their own boss. Johnston’s review said it was unclear what happened after this, but what is certain is that the information was not acted upon. Johnston apologized to Olivia, who was “disappointed that no one came back to her in a satisfactory way.” He wrote in his report that he had heard the incident was often “joked about” in the LA bureau.
After the 2019 complaint, Brand continued to be booked on BBC shows. He appeared on the Joe Wicks Podcast, which was later removed from the corporation’s streaming services when the scandal about Brand blew up in 2023.
A joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times, and Channel 4’s Dispatches revealed that four women had accused him of rape and sexual assaults between 2006 and 2013. Brand, who declined to cooperate with Johnston’s review, has denied the allegations and said his sexual relationships were “absolutely always consensual.” He is the subject of an ongoing police investigation.
The BBC declined to comment on the fact that Brand continued to appear on its airwaves, despite the non-historical complaints about his behavior. In a statement about Johnston’s review, the BBC said: “It is of great concern that some of these individuals felt unable to raise concerns about Russell Brand’s behaviour at the time, and the BBC has apologised to them. ”
Johnston’s review said that BBC employees felt Brand was untouchable and they feared nothing would be done if they complained. The 2016 and 2019 complaints, and his subsequent appearances on the BBC, not only appear to be evidence of this, but also suggest that the BBC failed to learn the lessons of the Jimmy Savile crisis.
Barrister Rose’s 2013 workplace culture review, set up in the heat of the Savile scandal, reached excoriating conclusions about BBC staff having a “weary” lack of confidence that justice will be served when raising a grievance. In response, the BBC made a series of commitments to improve complaints handling, including launching a helpline and toughening up freelancer contracts.
Deficiencies in BBC information sharing about non-editorial complaints was also a feature of the Huw Edwards scandal, when a complaint about the news anchor paying a young person for indecent images was not properly escalated internally. Following a Deloitte review into the matter last year, the BBC pledged to be more joined up about handling misconduct complaints so they are “escalated swiftly … and dealt with by the right people.”