Russell Brand
Radio X, 28 May 2017, 11:00
Radio X is a National DAB radio station providing an alternative music service for the 15-34s.
Russell Brand is a weekly programme broadcast between 11:00 and
13:00 on Sundays. The programme on 28 May 2017 was pre-recorded.
Ofcom received a complaint about sexual content during and immediately following a conversation between Russell Brand, Matt Morgan (the programme’s co-host on 28 May
2017) and Mr Gee (the programme’s resident poet) in the studio, and an Elvis Presley tribute artist (‘Guest’), who they had contacted on the phone. The complainant considered the exchanges unsuitable for broadcast when children were listening.
The unscripted conversation included the following:
Brand: “Have you ever had sex as Elvis?”.
...
Guest: “I’ve done it without the jump suit, but I have kept the cape on”.
Brand: “That’s good,
that’s how to do it. You can’t have sex with a jump suit on”.
Morgan: “Did you do the voice?”
Guest: “Well the only difficulty with that is they’re studded, you see, and they get very spikey and so they can cut you in places that you wouldn’t
imagine”.
Brand: “I’m, I’m imagining them, James!”
Guest: “And if you’re on top of somebody, you know…”.
Brand: “Very, er, you’re a bit of a brutal lover there, James!”
Guest: “Well, yes, I am, especially when I’m covered in Rhinestones!”
Brand: “Phwoar, that’s the way to do it!”
...
Ofcom considered:
Rule 1.3: “Children must…be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them”.
Rule 1.5 “Radio broadcasters must have particular regard to times when children are
particularly likely to be listening”.
Ofcom decision: Breach of rules 1.3 and 1.5
Ofcom first considered whether the material in this case was unsuitable for children.
The presenter asked Mr Burrell, the Elvis Presley
tribute artist, whether he had ever had sex as Elvis. He responded by joking that he had kept his cape on, but not his studded jump suit, as “they get very spikey and so they can cut you in places that you wouldn’t imagine”. After a brief studio
reaction, the interview ended but was followed up by Mr Gee sharing an anecdote about Elvis Presley, which he had seen in a documentary. He claimed that the singer had left a hotel with a friend after having just met a prostitute, and told him that “she
gives tremendous head, tremendous head”.
Ofcom took into account Global’s view that Radio X targeted an ‘alternative’ audience and “maintains a distinction from other mainstream stations”, with “edgier content in [Russell Brand’s]
show than on family-orientated pop music stations”. Nevertheless, we did not consider the above was an appropriate topic of discussion for younger listeners and, in our view, it was unsuitable for children.
Ofcom then considered
whether the broadcaster had had particular regard to times when children were particularly likely to be listening.
We took into account the Licensee’s acknowledgement, “in hindsight … that some of the further comments that
followed the initial conversation – although brief – strayed into more mature themes”. Ofcom considered that Global should have taken this into account when editing the pre-recorded programme.
It is Ofcom’s view that Global had
not had particular regard to times when children were likely to be listening, in breach of Rule 1.5.
Breaches of Rules 1.3 and 1.5
