BBC's Brand and Ross: 'sfunny how low you can go

Two of the BBC’s superstars Jonathan Ross and Russel Brand have been suspended and their show taken off the air pursuant to a series of prank calls to Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs. This involved a number of messages left on Sachs answering machine, which suggested one of the presenters having had sex with Sachs’s 23-year-old granddaughter and the possibility of the actor, who had previously portrayed Manuel, killing himself upon learning this news.

Initially the response to the antics on that particularly show was muted with barely a couple of calls being received. However subsequent to a newspaper article on the subject all hell has broken loose.

Sachs has been gracious enough in accepting the apologies of both Brand and Ross but was less than impressed with the BBC’s decision to air the show. It was, in this case, the producer’s call whether to proceed or not as the show did not go out live. Someone’s got a bad case of “please explain” coming to a carpet in the BBC near him real soon.

Once again the question of what constitutes comedy and what is simply being abusive crops up. Are we dealing with freedom of speech or is it just a case of anyone being able to say what they want, whenever they want, and if we don’t like it switch it off.

The presenters concerned are apparently among the corporation’s highest earners and are certainly nobody’s fools. The BBC is one of the world’s broadcasting flagships. Does this make them trendsetters or someone who should have known better?

Natalie Haynes, a stand up comic and writer, gave her view to the Times of London :

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5033360.ece

If Jeremy Mansfield and Wackhead had tried something like this on a local celebrity, what would the South African reaction to it have been?

Is there in fact a line when it comes to free speech in comedy and where do we begin to draw it?

Or is that the “off” switch?