The incident received little attention initially, but an article in The Mail on Sunday of 26 October 2008 led to widespread criticism of Brand, Ross and the editorial decisions of the BBC.
[3] On 16 October 2008, the actor Andrew Sachs, who portrayed Manuel in the 1970s television sitcom Fawlty Towers, was scheduled to be a phone-in guest on the show.
In the first message, Brand joked about Fawlty Towers and the fact that both he and Sachs had appeared in The Bill, but was interrupted by Ross shouting out "he fucked your granddaughter".
[4] Brand issued an apology for making the calls[9] but stated it was "funny" during his last radio show, before the Mail had printed the story.
[14] This incident resulted in the third-highest number of complaints to the BBC, behind only the airing of Jerry Springer: The Opera[13][16][17] and rolling coverage of Prince Philip memorial programmes in April 2021.
Baillie called for both Brand and Ross to be sacked by the BBC and stated that she and her family would be considering whether to make a formal complaint to the police.
[8] Thompson called the events a "gross lapse of taste by the performers and the production team" (who chose to broadcast the pre-recorded show) that angered licence-payers.
The chairman of the House of Commons select committee on culture, media and sport, John Whittingdale, stated that an investigation by the BBC was needed, but stopped short of calling for Ross and Brand to be sacked.
[32] The chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Communication, Lord Fowler, in a letter to The Times stated that there were "fundamental flaws" in the way that the BBC was regulated and governed, and that there was "confusion all round" because two parallel bodies, the BBC Trust and Ofcom, were investigating the incident, and it was "both unclear which of them the public should complain to and which of them had precedence over the other".
[33][34] Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, speaking on the Radio 4 Today Programme on 30 October, also refused to say whether he thought Ross should be sacked, asserting that politicians should remain at "arm's length" from such decisions.
In addition to citing the prank calls as a "perfect example" of where such a "responsibility deal" could have operated, he also pointed to Channel 4 as an example, stating that it was "not good enough" for it to produce "worthy" programmes such as Dispatches documenting alcohol abuse in the US, whilst at the same time it was broadcasting programmes such as Hollyoaks where such abuse took up, according to his estimates, 18% of screen time.
The culture spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, Don Foster, criticised this idea, stating that it "threatened the very foundational principles of freedom and independence" of British media, arguing that such government interference in television programming would be "a very sad day for British broadcasting", and pointing out that regulatory mechanisms already exist to deal with issues such as this.
[36][37][38] On 29 October, Conservative MP Nadine Dorries called for the BBC to terminate the contracts of both Ross and Brand.
[41] Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw, writing in his local newspaper the Lancashire Telegraph on 30 October,[42] became the first Cabinet Minister to call for the pair to be sacked, arguing that if both presenters had worked in commercial radio "they'd have been given their P45 before you could say 'Jack Robinson'.
Many felt that, whilst the incident was unacceptable, it was not deserving of the strong criticism it received, especially when there were other issues troubling the United Kingdom.
Some were amazed at the comments of the Prime Minister, with one person observing that "[t]he financial markets are wrecked and all he can do is talk about a petty joke."
[47] Carol McGiffin, a presenter on ITV's daytime programme Loose Women similarly supported the pair, criticising those who complained and stating that she "could not wait" to download the official podcast which included the incident.
[48] Noel Gallagher of the group Oasis, a friend of Brand's, complained that the press had "dictated the tone" of the controversy, and thought it "typical of the English in general" when "10,000 people get outraged, but only days after it has happened".
[49][50][51] A petition on the GoPetition web site, calling for the BBC "to turn blame on the 'Andrew Sachs' incident away from Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, and instead onto whoever green lighted the show" had garnered 336 signatures by 29 October.
He went on to say that the attitude displayed by the complainants and the BBC's backing down would have, in earlier times, precluded the production of much of what was at the time edgy comedy and "made culture poorer for it" (citing Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Day Today and The Young Ones amongst others as shows that would have not been commissioned owing to their controversial content).
While criticising those who had complained without seeing the programme and attacking newspapers that attempted to stir up further controversy (in particular the Daily Mail), he did not appear to defend Brand and Ross in particular, stating that the possibility of people being offended by some misjudged humour is "the price you pay for freedom of speech."
In a further column in The Guardian, he reiterated this point as well as saying that "people who retrospectively complain to Ofcom about material they've only read about second-hand are, in essence, a bunch of sanctimonious cry-babies indulging in a wretched form of masturbation.
[59] A week later, on 5 November 2008, UK television channel Five broadcast an hour-length documentary on the incident, titled Russell & Ross: What the F*** Was All That About?
She was questioned by host Andrew Neil and regular guests Michael Portillo and Diane Abbott about the Brand row within discussion of the general subject of the present day worth and genuineness of public figures saying sorry, in the wake of public apologies from members of parliament (MPs) and Prime Minister Gordon Brown following the events of the MP's expenses row.
"[64] In 2010, Baillie teamed up with singer Adam Ant (whose drummer Hayley Leggs had been a member, alongside Baillie, of burlesque troupe The Satanic Sluts) to compose the song "Gun in Your Pocket", about the incident, which he intended to release as the lead single for his ninth album Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter (with a rerecording of early 1980s outtake "Who's A Goofy Bunny Then?"
Baillie's band, the Poussez Posse, performed this second song regularly in live support slots for Ant's UK, mainland European and Australian tours during 2011–2012.
[68] Amongst her supporters were Chris Evans and Terry Wogan, both of whom worked for Radio 2 at the time, and Dame Liz Forgan, who called her one of the "outstanding broadcasters of her generation", and said that the BBC had "lost its wits".
[30] Ross had been scheduled to host the 2008 British Comedy Awards for ITV during the period of his suspension from the BBC; however, on 31 October he stepped down.
[69][70] On 31 October, Brand left the country, saying that he had work to do in the United States, including television programmes and film collaborations with Judd Apatow and Helen Mirren.
[72][73][74][75] Brand continued to be on the front cover of PETA's "Vegetarian Starter Kit" booklet, despite protests to the organisation.