BBC chiefs questioned by MPs

The BBC has defended its handling of the controversy surrounding a broadcast by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross in evidence to MPs.

Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, told the Commons culture, media and sport committee that Brand's Radio 2 programme had gone "beyond what is acceptable from a BBC broadcast".

Director general Mark Thompson agreed, describing the show - which featured prank calls to the answerphone of actor Andrew Sachs - as evidence of "a serious editorial lapse".

The two presenters made obscene comments about the actor's 23-year-old granddaughter during four separate phone calls for the pre-recorded Saturday night show.

"This was a very uncharacteristic, utterly unacceptable, but genuinely exceptional breach [of BBC guidelines] in my view," Thompson told MPs on Tuesday.

During an evidence session which went on for an hour longer than scheduled, the witnesses denied accusations that the BBC had been slow to respond to the ensuing public outcry.

After the broadcast was highlighted by the Mail on Sunday thousands of members of the public complained, leading the corporation to make several apologies to Sachs and his family.

Brand resigned from Radio 2 in the wake of the row, while Ross was suspended by the BBC without pay.

Complaints

Sir Michael said that after the initial broadcast on September 18, listened to by an audience of about 400,000 people with an average age of 55, only two complaints were received.

Neither were related to "the most offensive issues in the programme", he said.

After the Mail on Sunday highlighted the broadcast the following week, he said, the number of complaints began to grow.

But he went on to say it was "quite appropriate for us to listen to people carefully even if they haven't listened to the programme, as licence fee payers".

Conservative MP Nigel Evans asked if it was not "extraordinary" that it took the Mail on Sunday to highlight the breach.

Sir Michael said: "Within less than a week of the matter coming to our attention you not only had a full apology but a series of actions that demonstrated clearly that within the BBC there are consequences for those people who let the public down."

Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas and executive David Barber both resigned in the wake of the row.

Sir Michael went on: "The failings that need to be focused on are those that occurred before the Mail on Sunday article around the recording and broadcasting of the programme.

"I don't believe that we have anything to account for in terms of speed of action from either the trust or senior management.

"The primary failing is not the antics of the performers, it was that it was allowed to go out on the airwaves."

The BBC Trust will discuss the matter when it meets later this week, he said, and has requested a written report from the director general.

Sir Michael said there are "further steps to take to ensure better editorial controls", but added that discussions so far "suggest they are not pan-BBC"

The committee is investigating the commercial operations of the BBC, which the pair also defended.

Sir Michael said that BBC Worldwide had been set up to exploit the corporation's intellectual property rights, and generated profits worth about £9 per licence fee payer to pay for new programming.