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This prank fails miserably, yet still manages to be funny…

Jonathan Ross has been suspended from all BBC shows over the Andrew Sachs prank call. He will not be paid for 12 weeks, which will acculmulate in pay of over a £1 million lost. He is expected to return to work in mid january.

This news comes soon after it was announced today that Lesley Douglas, the controller of BBC Radio 2, had resigned. She had been in the job for 5 years, and admitted in her resignation letter that it had been a “painful week” for Radio 2.

“I am proud of what we have achieved together over the years and I shall miss you all,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “The events of the last two weeks happened on my watch. I believe it is right that I take responsibility for what has happened.”

It was Russell Brand’s radio show, and Lesley Douglas was the controller, yet Jonathon Ross seemed to be the instigator in the whole prank call, starting off with yelling, “he f***ed your granddaughter.” Seems he’s got off quite lightly.

Following his suspension over the prank call to Andre Sachs, Russell Brand has resigned from the BBC. In his recoded statement below Brand takes full responsibilty for the prank call, and defends the BBC and Jonathon Ross.

Jonathon Ross has said that he had planned to apologise on his friday night chat show, but that has been cancelled, as well as his Radio 2 show.

The BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, will meet the BBC’s governing body to discuss how the prank was aired and what should happen now.

I don’t ever remember anything like this before, where a prank call has caused so much controversy. We never had this trouble with the Fonejacker.

Following their prank call to Andrew Sachs Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross have both been suspended from their duties at the BBC.

Mark Thompson, director general at the BBC, issued this statement:

“Since Sunday, I have been in regular contact with the senior executives I tasked with handling this issue. In the meantime, I have decided that it is not appropriate for either Russell Brand or Jonathan Ross to continue broadcasting on the BBC until I have seen the full report of the actions of all concerned.

This gross lapse of taste by the performers and the production team has angered licence payers.”

He added his “own personal and unreserved apology to Andrew Sachs, his family and to licence fee payers for the completely unacceptable broadcast”.

Ross’s popular friday night chat show, which was due to feature Frank Skinner, has now been cancelled.

Prime minister, Gordon Brown, has now even spoke out over the controversy, branding the prank as, “inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour”.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see the two of them now sacked. The BBC is coming under a lot of fire for broadcasting the show, and the only way to appease this is if heads roll.

As Andrew Sachs daughter said:

“It was bad enough that they recorded these things on my grandfather’s answer machine but astonishing the BBC saw fit to broadcast it when they could have stopped it.

“Someone high up at the BBC must have decided it was funny and suitable for national radio. They’ve shown an appalling lack of judgement.”

Fawlty Towers star, Andrew Sachs, was last week the victim of a prank call by Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross on Brand’s BBC Radio 2 show. The BBC have just issued an apology to Mr Sachs.

A spokeswoman for Radio 2 said this, “We have received a letter of a complaint from Mr Sachs’ agent and would like to sincerely apologise to Mr Sachs for the offence caused. We recognise that some of the content broadcast was unacceptable and offensive. We are reviewing how this came about and are responding to Mr Sachs personally. We also apologise to listeners for any offence caused.”

Was it offensive? Make up your own mind…