The One That Thinks It's Worth A Punt. . .

So Russell 'Oh Why Couldn't I Have Been Born Kenneth Williams' Brand has decided to quit the BBC over the Manuelgate answerphone spat.

The timeline for this makes interesting reading, ten days after the event, and after the BBC had pulled the I-Player recording, 4772 people had complained.

Today, 11 days after the bomb went off, in excess of 18,000 people have called the Beeb to complain.

Now please, explain to me how around 14,000 people have been so offended by something that hasn't been re-broadcast that they were moved to call, write, email or in some other medium lodge a complaint.

I don't particularly like Brand. Ross is OK in small doses. But fucking hell. One of the quotes attributed to Sachs' granddaughter is that the two should 'at least pay with their jobs.'

At least? Where else do you want to go? Whipped naked in Trafalgar Square? Beheaded at The Tower, head on a spike over Tower Bridge and body quartered with sections sent to Dover, Penzance, Barrow and Newcastle?

Let's not get too precious shall we?

As always, the Daily Mash do a great take off of the whole situation here and here.

Now, does anyone have any tapes of Cabinet members making prank phonecalls? It seems to be the way to go. . .

Update.

Having reflected on the story, and the number of complaints it has attracted, I can't help but wonder if these complaints are in large part a protest at the amount of cash Wossy gets handed for doing his thing. Let us not forget that the licence fee is an effective tax on the ownership of televisions, and those employed by the BBC are effectively civil servants.

I suppose that if I heard a story about someone from DEFRA calling somebody up and leaving insulting and personal remarks on their answerphone, I'd be first in the queue calling for their heads.

Perhaps this goes to underline the fact that the BBC are little more than robber barons, or highwaymen, it is unfortunate that the old line about quality of programming just doesn't hold much water anymore. A serious investigation into the funding of the BBC needs to be made, not in light of this incident, but it certainly does draw attention to the organisation.