Prank Call Costs English Broadcaster His Contract

Andrew Sachs (pictured) is a 78-year-old English actor and comedian. I’m not familiar with his complete body of work, but I would be surprised if he ever surpassed his performances as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, bellboy and foil to John Cleese in the latter’s Fawlty Towers series. I did hear, however, that Mr. Sachs did an excellent series educating the English traveler on the wonders of Spain.  In the latter series, Mr. Sachs surprised many viewers by revealing that in fact he speaks no Spanish. 

The typical plot of a Fawlty Towers episode was that the over-confident and supercilious Basil Fawlty (Cleese) would get himself into some sort of predicament which he would then attempt to keep from his smart, shrewish wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales). For some reason, Sybil permits Basil to run the hotel, and he is thus able to enlist the employees, the charming, competent and beautiful American, Polly (played by Cleese’s then wife, Connie Booth, who co-wrote the series with him) and Manuel (Sachs), in the deceptive plot du jour. Manuel’s lack of English, coupled with Basil’s lack of Spanish, provided for many delightful miscommunications. In the end, Sybil would discover all, Basil would be humiliated and Manuel would receive a beating. During the series, Sachs took a lot of abuse, as indicated in the clip below. But he did so willingly. He was in on the joke.

Alas, Sachs is in the news again as the butt of a joke, but this time he was placed in that position without his knowledge or approval when two younger comedians (though not nearly young enough to justify their conduct) filled air time on BBC radio with a series of prank calls directed at Mr. Sachs. According to this Financial Times report, the BBC apologized to Mr. Sachs after Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross left a series of obscene messages on Mr. Sachs’ answering machine. The hilarious joke: the two claimed to be calling Mr. Sachs to inform him that Mr. Brand was sleeping with Mr. Sachs’ granddaughter. Sky News here identifies the granddaughter in question as “an aspiring model.” I’m sure it was really funny if you heard the program. Apparently 400,000 people did hear it, but few bothered to complain until the prank calls were reported in the newspapers. At that point, the BBC was flooded with complaints and several politicians, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, took the time to criticize Ross and Brand.

As CNN reports, the BBC decided to suspend Mr. Ross without pay for 12 weeks, a suspension that would cost him the equivalent of $2.4 million. The New York Times today reports that Mr. Brand has also resigned from his position with the BBC, where he hosted a radio program. The Guardian reports that Mr. Brand has plenty of other options. The impact on Mr. Ross’s career appears to be more significant.

I wonder what the basis is for Ross’s suspension. Is there a morals clauses in his contract? It appears that his regular listeners were for the most part not the least offended by the prank. Indeed, some English media reports suggest that what Ross and Brand did was tame by the standards of American shock jocks. I think we know what it would take to get Don Imus off the air (at least temporarily) but what would it take to rid the airwaves of Howard Stern?

[Jeremy Telman]