Following accusations of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse against Russell Brand covering a seven-year period at the height of his fame, which were unveiled on Saturday based on a The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, the U.K. arm of big production company Banijay said on Sunday that it has launched an “urgent” internal probe.
The Times and Channel 4 investigation into Brand found four women alleging that Brand sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2013, while he was a BBC presenter and acting in Hollywood films. It also spoke of controlling, abusive and predatory behavior by the star, who has vehemently denied wrongdoing.
The Saturday reports further included accusations that Brand flashed his penis at a runner and pursued women in the audience for sex while working on the shows EFourum and Big Brother’s Big Mouth, which were produced by Endemol for Channel 4. Endemol and Shine Group merged in 2015 to form Endemol Shine, which Banijay acquired in 2020.
“In light of the very serious allegations raised by Dispatches and The Times/Sunday Times investigation relating to the alleged serious misconduct of Russell Brand while presenting shows produced by Endemol in 2004 and 2005, Banijay U.K. has launched an urgent internal investigation and will cooperate with any requests for information from broadcast partners and external agencies,” the company said in a Sunday statement. “We also encourage anybody who feels that they were affected by Brand’s behavior while working on these productions to contact us in confidence.”
The actor and comedian preemptively denied the allegations reported by the Times and Channel 4` in a video posted to his social media platforms on Friday. He said he received an email and a letter from a mainstream TV company and a newspaper that listed several “egregious and aggressive” acts that he “absolutely refute[s].”
“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies, and as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” he said in the video posted to his Twitter and Instagram. “Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then — almost too transparent — and I’m being transparent about it now as well.”
Banijay had issued a first reaction to the reports on Saturday. “Banijay U.K. has robust welfare procedures and policies in place which are aimed at preventing such occurrences and protecting cast, crew and staff,” it said. “Escalation protocols are also in place across all our productions to encourage anyone experiencing or witnessing inappropriate behavior on set or in the workplace to speak up. A global code of conduct, anonymous whistle-blowing line and dedicated senior HR contacts are promoted for all production teams, including on-call sheets.” Concluded the production giant: “We take our duty of care to our cast, crew and staff extremely seriously.”
About the historical allegations against Brand, Banijay U.K. had said on Saturday: “While the legacy company, Endemol, did have a code of conduct, support policies and escalation procedures in place during the period in question (2004/2005), they were not as robust as our current processes. We are sorry these women did not feel supported and protected while working on these productions and in light of these serious allegations encourage to them to contact us in confidence.”
