Even within the culture of casual misogyny and sexism that pervaded the TV world in the mid-noughties, Naomi Harvey and her colleagues concluded they needed to do something about Russell Brand.
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they → pervade → Brand
Harvey was one of a team of researchers tasked with finding fans of Big Brother, Channel 4’s reality TV juggernaut, to appear on the discussion show Big Brother’s Big Mouth, hosted by Brand.
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fans → task → Brand
They had noticed Brand’s habit of asking a runner, the most junior person on the production, to obtain the phone numbers of female audience members and pass them to him.
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They → notice → him
But something new had just happened.
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something → happen → ?
A distraught audience member had phoned Harvey to complain after being invited for drinks by Brand after the show.
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member → phone → show
“All I remember is being really taken aback that she was so upset,” Harvey recalled.
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Harvey → remember → ?
“We noticed this behaviour of taking women’s numbers, and now it had escalated to the point that we’d had a member of the public phone up the desk upset.
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member → notice → desk
“We felt as the audience team we had a responsibility, so me and my two colleagues reported it up to our next boss.
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me → feel → boss
“We never heard anything again.”
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We → hear → anything
The episode is minor when set against the criminality exposed during Brand’s trial.
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episode → set → trial
Yet it is part of a culture that appeared to indulge Brand and fail to confront troubling behaviour.
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that → appear → behaviour
Brand’s case has led to difficult questions for the BBC, Channel 4 and the production companies that worked with him.
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that → lead → him
The TV world is again asking itself whether recent efforts to improve safeguarding will stop similar abuses.
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efforts → ask → abuses
There were several moments during Brand’s trial in which the TV culture that had tolerated his behaviour for so long seemed to be alongside him in the dock.
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that → be → dock
One of Brand’s accusers explained why she had not come forward with her experience earlier.
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she → explain → experience
“The media industry protects its own,” she told the court.
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she → protect → court
Another woman, an ex-MTV employee, said she did not report an incident at the time because she was scared.
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she → say → time
Rumours about Brand’s inappropriate behaviour were circulating within the standup comedy circuit before he ever reached TV screens.
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he → circulate → screens
Even so, serious allegations about Brand didn’t emerge until 2023 after a joint investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches and the Sunday Times.
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allegations → emerge → Dispatches
England’s strict defamation laws played a part.
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laws → play → part
“We have these ‘open secrets’ where everybody just knows this thing is true,” said Charlie Moloney, co-author of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists.
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Moloney → have → Journalists
“But of course, when you start to imagine how that would go if it were ever cross-examined in a court case, some of these open secrets fall apart under that level of scrutiny.
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some → start → scrutiny
“Someone says: ‘Alright, well if everybody knows this, can you actually prove that it happened?’
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it → say → this
At that point, you’ve got a lot of work to do.”
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you → get → work
Red flags were not hard to find, even among Brand’s public utterances.
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flags → find → utterances
While on BBC Radio 2 in 2008, Brand laughed on air about exposing himself moments earlier to a woman who was working in the same building in Los Angeles.
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who → laugh → Angeles
He also directed sexualised humour at a newsreader during his Radio 2 show, saying he wanted to “unleash hell” on her thighs, and appeared to make light of requests from production staff to apologise.
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he → direct → staff
During a 2007 interview with Jimmy Savile, he joked about sending a female assistant to him naked.
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he → joke → him
Brand eventually left the BBC after “Sachsgate”, when he and Jonathan Ross left obscene messages on the answerphone of actor Andrew Sachs.
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he → leave → Sachs
The BBC, Channel 4 and Banijay UK, the owner of the production company behind shows including Big Brother’s Big Mouth, all conducted reports into their handling of concerns about Brand.
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BBC → include → Brand
Banijay’s report found no formal complaints were made about Brand, but complaints made informally – including some about him asking runners to obtain phone numbers of audience members – were “not properly escalated or adequately addressed”.
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him → find → members
The BBC apologised after its review found there were people who had concerns about Brand’s behaviour, but believed he “would always get his own way” and stayed silent.
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he → apologise → way
The Channel 4 review found a complaint was not escalated to its senior management team.
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complaint → find → team
All said they had improved safeguarding and whistleblowing efforts.
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they → say → efforts
Senior figures from the era freely accept the culture needs to change.
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culture → accept → era
“Bad behaviour towards women was tolerated in television for too long,” said Alex Mahon, the former Channel 4 executive who ordered the Brand report.
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who → tolerate → report
“People don’t stay silent because they don’t know it’s wrong.
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it → stay → ?
They stay silent because they don’t trust what happens if they speak.
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they → stay → ?
It’s improving … but more than half of people who experience bullying or harassment in the industry still don’t report it.
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who → improve → it
We’re not finished.”
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We → finish → ?
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
