Alex Mahon says former staff member made ‘serious’ allegation in 2009 that was not ‘investigated as it should have been’
The head of Channel 4 has apologised to a former staff member for the organisation not properly investigating a “serious” allegation made against Russell Brand in 2009.
However, the broadcaster found “no evidence” that staff at Channel 4 knew about the accusations made by four women in a Dispatches documentary before it was aired in September.
Continue reading...Force says allegations against performer are non-recent and there have been no arrests
The Metropolitan police have received a number of sex offence allegations following news reports about Russell Brand.
The comedian and actor denied accusations made by four women in an investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Continue reading...Google-owned company says move is due to it ‘violating our creator responsibility policy’
YouTube has suspended Russell Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform after allegations of rape and sexual assault in a massive hit to his finances.
The video-sharing and social media site said it had suspended Brand’s channel from the YouTube partner programme after serious allegations against him, meaning his videos are no longer able to be monetised on the platform.
Continue reading...He may no longer be a fixture on British TV and radio, but he has a profitable online media empire. Can he hang on to it?
During the 2000s Russell Brand was ubiquitous in the British media, adopting a scattergun approach that saw him host his own BBC Radio 2 show, present Big Brother spinoff shows, work the chatshow circuit, tour his live comedy act, present documentaries, write a bestselling autobiography and even football blogposts for the Guardian, before heading off to Hollywood to briefly achieve global fame.
Nowadays he has a much smaller but still profitable media empire of his own, built on a set of online platforms that barely existed when he was at the peak of his fame. As a result he retains his direct access to his loyal audience, unlike in a previous era where he could be taken off air by an employer pending an investigation into allegations of sexual assault and rape – which Brand has denied.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: An investigation by the Sunday Times and Dispatches accused Brand of rape and sexual assault, leaving the entertainer and the companies that employed him facing serious questions
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
Good morning. Allegations that Russell Brand raped and sexually assaulted several women at the height of his career have thrown the entertainment industry into crisis. Today, politicians of all stripes are expected to demand explanations from TV executives about what they knew – and when.
In a detailed investigation by, the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, five women accused Brand of abusive and predatory behaviour, including rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013. Brand denies the allegations, and said his relationships were “always consensual”.
Russell Brand | Broadcasters have launched urgent investigations into the historical conduct of Russell Brand while the Metropolitan police has appealed for any potential victims to come forward after the comedian was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.
Labour | Keir Starmer has committed to pursuing a major rewrite of the Brexit deal with the EU if Labour is elected, citing his responsibility to his children and future generations. He told the Financial Times he would seek a closer trading relationship with Brussels when the agreement negotiated by then-prime minister Boris Johnson comes up for review in 2025.
Economy | Liz Truss will blame the UK’s economic problems on “25 years of economic consensus” as she doubles down on the policy proposals that helped trigger financial turmoil and caused her to be ousted from Downing Street after just 49 days. The former prime minister will give a speech at the Institute for Government on Monday, almost exactly a year since her government’s “mini-budget”, which caused the pound to crash and ultimately led to her downfall.
Donald Trump | The former US president, and Republican frontrunner for the 2024 nomination, said people in his party “speak very inarticulately” about abortion and criticised those who push for abortion bans without exceptions in the cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother.
Russia | US oil and gas multinationals are facing fresh questions over their trade with Russia after customs records revealed that more than $7.1m (£5.7m) worth of equipment manufactured by Halliburton has been exported into the country since it announced the end of its Russian operations.
Continue reading...Corporation says accusations span a number of years, including 2006 to 2008, when comedian worked for Radio 2
The BBC has said it is “urgently looking into the issues raised” by the publication of allegations of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse against Russell Brand.
The Sunday Times published allegations this weekend that Brand had sexually assaulted four women after a years-long investigation into claims about his behaviour in collaboration with Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Continue reading...Claims related to seven-year period are detailed in Times and Channel 4 investigation after actor had already denied allegations
Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse over a seven-year period at the height of his fame.
The allegations between 2006 and 2013 were the result of a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches. Brand denies the allegations.
Continue reading...Actor and comedian makes statement after receiving letters from ‘mainstream media TV company’ and newspaper
Russell Brand has vehemently denied “very serious criminal allegations” about his personal life, in a video in which he does not specify what the claims are but insists his relationships have always been consensual.
In a clip posted on YouTube and to his social media platforms, the actor and comedian said he had received communications from a “mainstream media TV company” and a newspaper “listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks” that he “absolutely refutes”.
Continue reading...Branagh’s spirited performance as Poirot and a big-name ensemble cast can’t keep this stale and two-dimensional whodunnit afloat
Long coronavirally delayed, Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie movie puffs effortfully into harbour. It’s the classic whodunnit about a murder on a steamer making its way down the river in Egypt with an Anglo-American boatful of waxy-faced cameos aboard. The horrible homicide means that one of the passengers will have to spring into action, and this is of course the amply moustached Hercule Poirot, played by Branagh himself. It is Poirot who interviews suspects, supervises corpse-storage in the ship’s galley freezer cabinet and delivers the final unmasking – and all without the captain insisting that the Egyptian police should possibly get involved.
Screenwriter Michael Green has adapted the 1937 novel with some new inventions: some people of colour are introduced, and Christie’s intense dislike for her wealthy-hypocrite leftwing character has been dialled down. Most startlingly, Green invents a very good prelude showing the young Poirot’s service in the trenches of the first world war, and the origin of that moustache. Nothing in the rest of this rather stale and two-dimensional tale matches the brio of that opening.
Continue reading...From apocalyptic standup Frankie Boyle to the many hilarious faces of Tina Fey, Steve Coogan, Sharon Horgan and Kristen Wiig, we present the funniest comics of the era
Continue reading...