YouTube suspends adverts on Russell Brand’s channel as Katy Perry clips resurface

Russell Brand has reportedly quit two of his businesses in the wake of a number of allegations made against him.

The comedian has held Director roles at both One Arm Bandit Limited and Mayfair Film Partnership Limited for well over a decade.

However, according to Companies House, he resigned from both on Tuesday. Each business now lists a document on his “termination of appointment”.

The boss of Channel 4 says the broadcaster has “carried out extensive document searches and thus far have found no evidence to suggest the alleged incidents” about Russell Brand were reported to management.

Channel 4 has launched an investigation into his time at the channel after he was accused of pursuing audience members for sex while presenting the broadcaster’s Big Brother spin-off shows EFourum and Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

Brand has strongly denied the allegations, in a video posted online on Friday, saying he has been “promiscuous” but that all of his relationships have been “consensual”.

Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairwoman Dame Caroline Dinenage wrote to broadcasters on Tuesday, including Channel 4, to request further details on what actions they are taking in response to the allegations.

Dame Caroline asked for the broadcaster to set out the time for completion of the investigation and urged it to “disclose” the information that can be made public.

In a letter to the commons committee on Monday, and published on Tuesday online, Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon said: “Since becoming aware of some of the allegations, just over a week ago, we have carried out extensive document searches and thus far have found no evidence to suggest the alleged incidents were brought to the attention of Channel 4 management at the time.

“We will continue to look at this issue and will forensically examine any further information, including the accounts of those affected.”

Jimmy Fallon can be seen in a newly resurfaced clip scolding Russell Brand for making Katharine McPhee uncomfortable by bouncing her on his lap.

The clip began making the rounds onling after a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches revealed four women have made allegations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse against Brand.

The victims allege that his actions took place between 2006 and 2013 when Brand was a presenter for both BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4. Before the investigation was published, he took to Instagram to disavow and deny the accusations.

An investigation by the BBC into Russell Brand’s time at the corporation will look into the use of “any cars used by the BBC at that time”, its director general has said.

In a long-arranged Q and A with staff on Tuesday, Tim Davie was quizzed about how the corporation was responding following accusations about Brand’s time at BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music between 2006 and 2008.

The Times reported on Monday that a woman claims comedian and actor, Brand, used the BBC’s car service to pick her up from school when she was 16 so she could visit his home.

Mr Davie said he hopes a review, led by BBC’s director of editorial complaints Peter Johnston, will give an “initial report in weeks, not months” and added that “the objective is to be totally transparent”.

He also said: “The review will also look at the position regarding any cars used by the BBC at that time – because that was obviously something that, again, in a powerful testimony, was mentioned.”

The allegations against Russell Brand over the weekend have got people examining the age of consent. Rightly so. That a 30-year-old man would embark on a sexual relationship with a schoolgirl feels instinctively wrong to many of us.

The woman in question, “Alice”, who has said she now feels she was groomed by Brand (though he has denied all of the allegations), has called for consent law to be reviewed in light of her experience. “The law enabled it,” she told reporters for The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches investigation which was published at the weekend, with the documentary airing on Saturday night. “It shouldn’t be legal for a 16-year-old to have a relationship with a man in their thirties.”

Now, most of us are comfortable with the idea that a 16-year-old can consent to sex with another 16-year-old; that two teenagers can have a sexual relationship. But we start to feel iffy when it’s an adult in a sexual relationship with a minor. As the age gap increases, so does our disquiet. That’s not mere hand-wringing or moralising, and it’s not about trying to deny young people their sexuality. It’s because we understand implicitly, even when we can’t articulate it, that an imbalance of power can affect consent.

Channel 4 has removed a number of TV episodes starring Russell Brand from its catch-up series, following allegations of sexual assault against the presenter.

As Channel 4 announced that it had launched its own internal enquiry into the allegations against Brand, content containing Brand was removed from its streaming service (formerly known as All4 and 4OD).

The box set of Big Brother’s Big Mouth, the spin-off show fronted by Brand, has been removed from the platform, Channel 4 confirmed on Sunday (17 September).

Also among the removed content is a 2019 episode of The Great Celebrity Bake Off, which Brand co-starred in alongside John Lithgow, Jon Richardson and Hannah Cockroft. He won his episode.

A Channel 4 spokesperson confirmed: “We’ve taken down all content featuring Russell Brand while we look into the matter.

“This includes episodes of The Great British Bake Off and the Big Brother box sets that he appeared on.”

When Russell Brand lifted his two daughters, one aged six, the other aged four, onto his lap on stage at his “living and wellness” Community Festival this summer – only to then begin swearing extravagantly in front of them, for the benefit of his adoring audience – an alarm bell rang.

Foul, expletive-filled language might be what Brand’s loyal cohort of followers (he has over six million YouTube subscribers) expect from him, and even delight in. But firing off four-letter words while two very young girls were sitting passively just inches away from their father was more than just performative crassness. It felt to me like the definition of a red line being crossed.

It wasn’t the only time I thought the comedian turned mindfulness guru strongly misread the room at his homespun healing festival, held in July at Hay-on-Wye, at which his wife, Laura, was given equal billing.