Russell Brand accusations force Britain to look in the mirror

Brand was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse in a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches program that aired Saturday. Photo: Bloomberg

It is a measure of how much Russell Brand has dominated UK headlines that Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, alongside diplomatic concerns such as aid to flood-stricken Libya and relations with China, found time to address sexual-assault allegations levelled against the onetime Hollywood A-lister turned social-media influencer.

"There are some real challenges where you have these very very acute differentials in power," whether in entertainment, politics or the commercial world, Cleverly said on BBC Television last weekend. "I think we have to be particularly careful when we listen to the voices of the people who are relatively powerless because we collectively have missed opportunities to do the right thing and intervene much much earlier. And we've got to be better at this."

It is hard to disagree. This year has provided a number of occasions to reflect on Britain's approach to tackling sexual misconduct and misogyny. The country's biggest business lobby was thrown into turmoil in April by a series of allegations, including one of rape, against senior figures. Its survival remains in question. 

Two months later, the hedge fund empire of Crispin Odey unraveled after 13 women alleged incidents of abuse or harassment  (which he has denied) stretching over more than two decades. Earlier this week, London's Metropolitan Police said 1,000 officers are currently suspended or on restricted duties, many for sexual-related incidents, amid efforts to tackle the "boys' club" culture of the force. 

Brand was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse in a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches program that aired Saturday. The entertainer has denied all the allegations, which span the period from 2006 to 2013. 

In a video posted to YouTube before the reports were published, Brand said his relationships had always been consensual: "I don't mind them using my books and my stand-up to talk about my promiscuous, consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very very serious criminal allegations."

The 48-year-old rose to prominence in the 2000s alongside a wave of shock comedians whose humour relied on transgressing social taboos. He worked as a presenter for the BBC and Channel 4 before moving to Hollywood to star in movies such as Get Him to the Greek and marrying pop star Katy Perry (they divorced two years later). 

In recent years, he has become known more for his social-media activities, reinventing himself as a political commentator with a left-wing stance (he interviewed then-Labour leader Ed Miliband and endorsed him in the 2015 general election) before pivoting in the late 2010s to embrace conspiracy theories, which earned him a fresh set of US alt-right supporters. Brand has 11.3 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), 6.6 million on YouTube, and 1.4 million on the conservative video platform Rumble.

To listen to Brand's early output, as featured in Dispatches, is to be reminded of how inappropriate much of his content was for mainstream television or radio to begin with. In one segment featured, he speaks of liking oral sex that causes a woman to choke. BBC and Channel 4 bosses deserve to squirm. Both broadcasters are investigating the assault allegations.

A power imbalance is a feature of most sexual-assault or harassment cases, whether it concerns superiors at work, financial titans or authority figures such as the police. This applies in spades to the entertainment industry, which is driven to such a large extent by the power of stars and the dominant executives who can make them. The influence accrued by the most popular performers can engender a sense of impunity and breed a culture of tolerance that acts as an enabler of abuse.

Entertainment is a competition for attention. Studio and broadcast executives hire performers who they believe will attract an audience. But it is a symbiotic process. They are also the star-makers, providing the platform that enables emerging talent to build a following. That imposes a duty on these businesses to act as responsible gatekeepers, particularly when they are state-funded.

In 2008, Brand resigned from his BBC radio show after making a prank call to the then-78-year-old actor Andrew Sachs, one of the stars of the beloved 1970s sitcom Fawlty Towers, during which he boasted of having sex with Sachs's granddaughter. That program alone, which attracted tens of thousands of complaints, might have been disqualifying for a mainstream television performer. Yet Brand was still appearing on British TV as recently as 2019.

In another particularly chilling radio clip, he jokes with Jimmy Savile, the BBC personality and charity fundraiser who after his death in 2011 was revealed to be a pedophile and serial rapist. Brand offers to send his female assistant naked to meet Savile.

Britain has already been undergoing a reappraisal of the 2000s comedy era, some of which in hindsight looks spiteful and lacking in empathy. In 2020, the BBC removed episodes of Little Britain, featuring characters in blackface and other ethnic and class caricatures, from its streaming service and other platforms. At its peak, the program was watched by 10 million people.

One reading of this year's spate of sexual-assault-related controversies is that it evidences how Britain has changed in the MeToo era and become a healthier social organism by reacting belatedly to expel toxic matter and right the wrongs of the past. Certainly, there has been progress in some areas. The BBC, for example, has become far less male-dominated than a couple of decades ago. 

But that would be an overly comforting conclusion. Parliament itself has seen numerous allegations, findings and convictions against elected MPs. And nobody knows how many more scandals are waiting to be exposed, and the obstacles to reporting abuse remain considerable, particularly when the subjects are rich and famous. "Britain must do better" remains an appropriate verdict.

Matthew Brooker is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion. He previously was a columnist, editor and bureau chief for Bloomberg News. He is a CFA charterholder.

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement.