Dispatches review: this Russell Brand investigation was a stark reminder of the power of TV

When news breaks these days, it breaks fast. As recently as Friday afternoon, this special edition of Channel 4’s Dispatches – Russell Brand: In Plain Sight – was just a rumour without a title. By the time it aired at 9pm on Saturday night, almost every aspect of the allegations it contained had been reported, pored over, discussed, dissected, commented upon and written about in multiple news outlets and on social media.

Dispatches arrived not at a point where it could shape the nation’s conversation - it already was the conversation. This was in part because this was a joint investigation into Russell Brand’s behaviour with the Times and Sunday Times, and interviews detailing rape, sexual assault and abuse of power allegations from the documentary had already been published online hours before the programme aired. What could Dispatches possibly add? Well, a lot, actually. Russell Brand: In Plain Sight showed, very uncomfortably, the power of television.

“Alice” – who spoke in silhouette – told of how Brand, at 31 and a TV star, began a relationship with her in April 2006, when she was 16 and still at school.  She recounted an occasion when Brand performed a sexual act on her in which she couldn’t breathe, and how “I knew at that point that he didn’t care about hurting me physically or emotionally or any of it.” It was disturbing and upsetting. She emphasised how the age gap meant that she “didn’t feel like I could advocate for myself in any way. And I also didn’t feel like I could argue with a grown up.” Other accounts described allegations of rape and sexual assault in graphic detail. 

Meanwhile, we were shown clips of Brand on his rise to the top of almost every branch of the mainstream media – Channel 4, the Guardian, BBC TV and radio, book publishing, Hollywood. There he was, cheeky Russell, taking his trousers down and jumping into the lap of a female guest on TV; transgressive Russell, joking on stage about oral sex; sexy Russell, posing for photographers at the premiere of a film in LA. 

An image emerged of a man using his fame to sleep with young women, getting junior members of staff to make arrangements with television audience members, and leaving others to deal with the consequences. Helen Berger, who worked as an assistant for Brand in 2006 when he was fronting the Endemol-produced Channel 4 show Big Brother’s Big Mouth, remembered getting phone calls from women in tears afterwards, “they just felt used”. The programme included portions of the pre-emptive video address released by Brand, in which he admitted to being “promiscuous”, but denied the allegations of non-consensual behaviour: “I seriously refute… these very, very serious criminal allegations”. 

But once again, as in previous celebrity scandals, Dispatches was left looking at a scenario in which its parent broadcaster Channel 4 was in the dock itself, along with other media organisations. How much had been known about Brand’s behaviour at the time by Endemol, by Channel 4, by the BBC? Was it another case where concerns were seemingly common knowledge among staff up to a level just below those in positions of decision-making responsibility? Each organisation provided corporate legal statements. Channel 4 “was appalled to learn of these deeply troubling allegations”. 

Alice’s plaintive words - “I’ve been waiting since I was 16 for it to hit the papers or for it to be on the news that he’s been arrested or that somebody’s reported him and it’s stopped the abuse”- were a reminder of just how high and insurmountable is the invisible wall that makes individuals feel powerless against the famous, the wealthy and the powerful.