Liz Kershaw claims BBC allowed Russell Brand to 'bully' colleagues

Radio legend Liz Kershaw claims the BBC allowed Russell Brand to ‘blatantly bully’ and ‘humiliate’ colleagues as she slams the broadcaster for allowing him to do ‘whatever he wanted’

•  Kershaw singled out ex-Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas for enabling Brand
•  Douglas resigned after Brand and Jonathan Ross aired lewd phone messages

The BBC allowed Russell Brand to ‘blatantly bully and humiliate’ colleagues, Liz Kershaw has claimed.

The former radio presenter says the prevailing management culture permitted his antics and left behind ‘a trail of ruined careers and shattered lives’.

In a damning attack, she singled out former BBC Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas for allowing Brand, who is facing sexual assault claims, to do ‘whatever he wanted’.

Ms Douglas championed the star at digital station 6 Music in 2006 and then at Radio 2 despite ‘objections from production staff, presenters and the listeners’.

She resigned in 2008 after Brand and Jonathan Ross aired lewd telephone messages they left for Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs.

The former radio presenter, Liz Kershaw, says the prevailing management culture permitted his antics and left behind ‘a trail of ruined careers and shattered lives’

Ms Douglas resigned in 2008 after Brand and Jonathan Ross aired lewd telephone messages they left for Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Ms Kershaw said: ‘My beef is not with Brand. It’s about the BBC management culture that prevailed and permitted his antics at Radio 2 and 6 Music from 2006 to 2008.’ 

She claimed Ms Douglas ‘allowed Brand to blatantly bully and humiliate his co-workers, critics and even a national treasure, Andrew Sachs’. 

A statement by Ms Douglas’s representative aired on Channel 4’s Dispatches read: ‘Ms Douglas did not at any time encourage, enable and/or fail herself to take any adequate steps within her power with regard to the conduct of Mr Brand of which she was aware.’

ITV boss Kevin Lygo is to be quizzed as part of Channel 4’s Russell Brand probe. Mr Lygo was in charge of all of Channel 4 content between 2003 and 2010 when Brand hosted spin-off programmes for Big Brother.

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