Vanessa Feltz ‘admired friend’ Russell Brand before his ‘deeply offensive comments’ on chat show

Vanessa Feltz says Russell Brand was a 'friend' before his 'deeply offensive comments'This Morning, ITV

Transcript

00:00 We know the style of comedy he did at that time

00:02 was very much like this.

00:04 You can clearly hear the audience laughing away,

00:06 so a lot of people found it very funny.

00:08 But you visually didn't.

00:11 - I really didn't, no.

00:12 And actually, at that time, I did call Russell a friend.

00:16 And I had really admired his broadcasting style.

00:19 I remember seeing him for the very first time

00:20 when I was on the panel of the E! Forum

00:24 and then on Big Brother's Big Mouth,

00:26 and thinking, gosh, the energy, the drama,

00:29 the use of language.

00:30 He was very different from anybody else.

00:32 I'd never really seen anybody present like that.

00:35 And I was thoroughly beguiled by it and him,

00:37 because he's very, very clever, very charming, enormously

00:40 entertaining.

00:41 And I went to see him do his stand-up that very night.

00:44 I was so intrigued by him.

00:46 So when I went into that show, I went in

00:48 as I thought a friend, an admirer, that kind of thing.

00:52 But when somebody starts talking about having sex

00:55 with your children--

00:56 and my daughter Saskia was 17 at the time.

00:59 I was absolutely horrified.

01:01 There have to be some kind of boundaries,

01:03 some kind of politeness, some kind of social acceptability.