BBC lewd calls 'grossly offensive'

4:35pm Friday 21st November 2008

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The obscene phone calls to actor Andrew Sachs broadcast by the BBC were "grossly offensive" and there was no justification for broadcasting them, the corporation's governing body said.

The BBC Trust said the material broadcast on Russell Brand's Radio 2 show last month was a "deplorable intrusion" into the private lives of Sachs and his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

There was no "editorial justification" and no "informed consent obtained" for airing the messages, which were left on the answerphone of the Fawlty Towers actor, the Trust said.

BBC trustee Richard Tait said there were three failures - to exercise editorial control, to follow established compliance systems and a failure of judgment in taking editorial decisions.

But he said the Trust considered the BBC's response to the controversy to be appropriate.

This appears to suggest that Jonathan Ross, who was involved in the broadcast, would be allowed to return to his £6 million-a-year job as a BBC presenter when his current period of suspension without pay is up in January.

BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said the body would not be taking any further action against Ross and he said: "We have underlined very clearly that it is not the job of the Trust to make decisions about the terms and conditions of performers or the sanctions that are applied to them when they are found to be wanting.

"We are very clear that the director general has taken the right action with respect to Jonathan Ross."

He said the Trust could see nothing new in the evidence about that.

He said: "The common issue is not who the performers are. The common issue is editorial failings...the failings here are in the role of the BBC as the publisher of the material."