I'm sure, like many people of my generation who grew up through their 20s and 30s with Russell Brand as a big part of pop culture, the news that he is behind bars will have come as a shock.

I'm not surprised, though.

If you've been following the rape trial like I have, it would have dawned on you pretty early on in the testimony of those women that he was going to go down for this. Their stories of what he did to them were too compelling. They were not, in many cases, even dramatic. It was almost like they were explaining something as ordinary as folding socks. It just happened.

The events themselves, and the way they unfolded, were so ordinary. So believable. And yet, of course, so completely unacceptable that it became clear early on, I thought, that the jury was going to believe these women, and they did.

And it was a jury, by the way, of eight men and four women, and I think that makeup says a lot about how much those women were believed.

Now, there are real questions that will be asked of the BBC again because Russell Brand is just the latest in a very long line of presenters and high-profile staff who have been caught up in sex-related scandals while working for the BBC. Jimmy Savile, Huw Edwards, Gregg Wallace, Rolf Harris. Brand is simply the latest.

And he's quoted as suggesting that the BBC boss during his time there gave him a free pass for bad behaviour. He said she was incredibly tolerant of his inappropriate sexual behaviour while he was a star radio presenter and that she, quote, "loved me and gave me lots of room, so I took that room".

He said that was basically how things were run during the mid-2000s.

Now, maybe this is not exclusively a BBC problem. Maybe this is just what happens when you're employing really high-profile, highly valuable, bankable talent like Russell Brand. You give them free passes.

But what everybody fails to remember when that is happening is that power, fame and bankability are passing phases. They pass.

Eventually, you become an ordinary human being again. And as that list of men has shown, when you become an ordinary human being again, the consequences of your actions catch up with you.

Brand is simply the latest to learn that.

LISTEN ABOVE

I'm sure, like many people of my generation who grew up through their 20s and 30s with Russell Brand as a big part of pop culture, the news that he is behind bars will have come as a shock.
I'm not surprised, though.
If you've been following the rape trial like I have, it would have dawned on you pretty early on in the testimony of those women that he was going to go down for this. Their stories of what he did to them were too compelling. They were not, in many cases, even dramatic. It was almost like they were explaining something as ordinary as folding socks. It just happened.
The events themselves, and the way they unfolded, were so ordinary. So believable. And yet, of course, so completely unacceptable that it became clear early on, I thought, that the jury was going to believe these women, and they did.
And it was a jury, by the way, of eight men and four women, and I think that makeup says a lot about how much those women were believed.
Now, there are real questions that will be asked of the BBC again because Russell Brand is just the latest in a very long line of presenters and high-profile staff who have been caught up in sex-related scandals while working for the BBC. Jimmy Savile, Huw Edwards, Gregg Wallace, Rolf Harris. Brand is simply the latest.
And he's quoted as suggesting that the BBC boss during his time there gave him a free pass for bad behaviour. He said she was incredibly tolerant of his inappropriate sexual behaviour while he was a star radio presenter and that she, quote, "loved me and gave me lots of room, so I took that room".
He said that was basically how things were run during the mid-2000s.
Now, maybe this is not exclusively a BBC problem. Maybe this is just what happens when you're employing really high-profile, highly valuable, bankable talent like Russell Brand. You give them free passes.
But what everybody fails to remember when that is happening is that power, fame and bankability are passing phases. They pass.
Eventually, you become an ordinary human being again. And as that list of men has shown, when you become an ordinary human being again, the consequences of your actions catch up with you.
Brand is simply the latest to learn that.
LISTEN ABOVE

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm not surprised about Russell Brand

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/8a042748-ae8f-4083-a093-b4fc0031c12a/transcript