Disgraced comedian Russell Brand made a ‘depraved’ TV documentary in which he befriended a heroin addict, then reduced him to tears by offering him £50 to let him sleep with his prostitute girlfriend.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that social services were called after Brand lived with the couple and their toddler daughter at their Norwich home for a week before making his sordid proposal, which was rejected.
During filming, Brand’s sidekick Matt Morgan sometimes had to care for the couple’s child because everyone else in the house was high on drugs. Brand was still a heroin addict himself at the time and later admitted to using ‘the whole time we were making the program with them (the couple)’.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that the boss of the company behind the programme, which was never broadcast, called social services after being shown the disturbing images.
The shocking episode is a new low for Brand, 48, who is facing allegations of rape and sexual assault by four women, including one who was 16 years old when she claimed he sexually assaulted her. He denies the claims.
Disgraced comedian Russell Brand made a ‘depraved’ TV documentary in which he befriended a heroin addict and then reduced him to tears by offering him £50 to let him sleep with his prostitute girlfriend, the Mail can learn on Sunday reveal
During filming, Brand’s sidekick Matt Morgan (pictured right) sometimes had to stay behind to care for the couple’s child because everyone else in the house was high on drugs
In a podcast earlier this year, Mr Morgan recalled making a “comedy” docuseries called RE:Brand, made for the now-defunct channel Play UK, in which they filmed an episode where they lived with the heroin addict couple. He said: ‘The guy who ran the production company looked at it and said, ‘This can’t be televised because they will lose custody of their child.’ ‘
The show was made by the highly regarded Vera Productions and was critically praised by Brand and Morgan, his then writing partner, as a way to explore the idea of whether “someone would sleep with prostitutes if they were unable to dehumanize them.”
Morgan recalled that after ‘helping’ the couple for a week, Brand turned to the boyfriend and said: ‘I want to give you £50. . . I’m going to have sex with her.’
Morgan added that the boyfriend “started crying.” . . it was actually very beautiful and they all ended up crying. . . it was quite mental. It took me about two or three days to get back to my normal life to unpack everything. It was almost like you needed guidance.” A source with knowledge of the program said ‘it was all quite depraved, dirty and filthy’.
Brand refers to the incident in his memoir My Booky Wook, in which he writes that the woman was ‘pimped’ by her partner. He said the man’s tearful response to his proposal to get money for sex made him feel terrible, “but I still thought, ‘This is what you do every day, it’s just you gotta know me .’ ‘
Morgan revealed that he and Brand had first met the junkie couple a few weeks earlier while on a drug-addled holiday in Norfolk.
He told broadcaster Sean McDonald’s Blethered podcast: ‘Me and him (Brand) went on holiday and rented a boat. We’re totally screwing it up. We smoked weed and drank and the boat sank.
“We hit it, we went out into the open sea and it was mental. Then I caught a cold because there was only one blanket and Russell had it. I was sick and we went to a hotel and he was in full sex addiction mode and he said, ‘I have to go fuck a prostitute.’
“So he went and came back and said, ‘I couldn’t do it. I went through her house and there were children’s toys and it was really grim and I felt really sorry for her and the situation was really terrible.”
“So when we got back to London we thought, ‘That’s interesting that she was too humanized, you couldn’t do it, so prostitution is clearly wrong.’ If you knew that person, could you go through with it?’ He said this was the idea behind returning to Norfolk and living with the couple for an episode of the RE:Brand series.
Morgan said the situation with the heroin-addicted couple was ‘f****** tragic’, adding: ‘She was supporting hers and his heroin addiction, and there was a child in the house, and that was the reason why we couldn’t show it. There were points where they were all ‘gushing’, falling asleep, while this poor little child was running around. So you make this documentary, but I make this little kid a sandwich because no one else does, and it was just tragic, it was horrible.”
Morgan said other ideas for RE:Brand were on the shelf.
Brand recalled in My Booky Wook: “A throwaway RE:Brand idea that was probably best left unfollowed was, ‘Let’s get loads of prostitutes, make them live with my mother, and she’ll be their pimp.’ . . I remember the phone call very clearly: “Mom, can I have a lot of prostitutes come to your house for a TV show?”
The shocking episode is a new low for Brand, 48, who is facing allegations of rape and sexual assault by four women, including one who was 16 years old when she claimed he sexually assaulted her. He denies the claims
“Yes, okay,” she replied in the same soft voice she always used as she continued resolutely on her mission to love me.”
Last week Brand was accused of exposing himself to a woman in 2008 and then laughing about it on his Radio 2 show with Morgan, who told listeners Brand was ‘showing his dick to a lady’.
In a statement, Morgan said he stopped working for Brand “several years ago.” He added: ‘During the time I worked with him I was never aware of any allegations of serious sexual misconduct against him. I absolutely condemn all forms of abuse of women.’
Brand has said the allegations made against him in the past week are part of a vendetta against him by the mainstream. On Friday evening, he posted a video on social media channels thanking his followers for their “support and for questioning the information you have been given.”
He further announced that he would return his show on Rumble – an online video platform – after advertising on his YouTube channel was suspended in light of the allegations.
In a wide-ranging speech, he accused the British government of demanding major tech platforms censor his online content and lashed out at his former employer, the BBC, for its “trusted news initiative” that tackles fake news. Several women have made accusations against the comedian, which they say happened at the height of his fame.
The shocking allegations, which are said to have taken place between 2003 and 2013, include the alleged rape of a woman at his Los Angeles home and the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old schoolgirl.
Brand has denied the allegations and claimed all his relationships were consensual.