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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.”