Re: Brand

There's various signs you're getting old. Whether you tie bits of string round things like your dad used to, make a list of errands to do at the weekend, or prefer sitting down at gigs (or 'concerts' as you may be more likely to call them - and that's if you go at all.)

So, having turned 35 recently, I've been thinking that I'm getting old. Until this week when I was jolted back into my 20s for a few days. And it's all down to Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross.

If you've been living in a cave for the last week, here's what happened: Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross called up actor Andrew Sachs for a phone interview, and he didn't answer. So they left a message on his phone, during which they divulged that Brand had slept with his granddaughter.

The backlash against these two has been on the scale of the Janet Jackson 'nipplegate' incident in the States a few years back, which in hindsight everyone agrees was a gross overreaction. What we have seen in recent days is Brand being pushed out of his job, and Jonathan Ross suspended for 3 months. It's not that I particularly care about these two, but I am in utter disbelief about the way the country has reacted to this. Here's my tuppence worth:

1) Over 20,000 complaints have allegedly been recieved about the incident. More than 90% of these after the show was taken off the BBC site - in which case I'd argue that the vast majority haven't actually heard the broadcast. I am one of the few who actually listened to the show and, really, it wasn't that bad.

2) Georgina Baillie (the granddaughter in question), has got a lot of publicity for herself, and her troupe of 'burlesque' dancers. Why? Because she has signed up Max Clifford, and he has made sure that this issue has been blown out of all proportion to get maximum exposure for his client. And it's working.

3) Brand's assertion that he slept with Georgina Baillie has since been verified - by Georgina Baillie herself. So her grandad found out. So what? If you sleep with Russell Brand, the whole world's going to find out.

So here I am wondering whether the whole country has gone mad, and feeling like a teenager to whom nothing seems particularly offensive. I should be calling for these two to be sacked, along with others of 'my age'. Instead I find myself lamenting the slow erosion of the Great British Sense of Humour. What a shame.