They didn't insult him, all the hysteria is about them saying Russell had slept with his daughter, which, although not something he wants to hear (I'm sure!) isn't actually an insult... According to the transcript, they didn't say anything specifically insulting, in fact quite the opposite (although Russell *was* digging himself into a hole somewhat!)

As I understand it, it was prerecorded, so someone at the beeb had had to approve it being aired, and also they weren't ringing up a random person, he was supposed to be interviewed but then didn't answer the phone.

I don't know if it's much of an argument to say that Jonathan started it, but he did! Although Russell didn't really help himself with that silly song, but really, it's all been blown WAY out of proportion.

Actually I feel quite sorry for Russell, silliness aside. It's alright for Jonathan with his £18 million contract, but Russell could be sacked over this, due to public hysteria. (Example of public hysteria: there had been about 1000 this morning, 5000 when I saw the news this afternoon, then 10,000 by the time they did a news summary about 5 minutes later!!)

I don't think it was remotely funny but I also didn't expect it to become front page news!