Channel 4 has revealed the subject of the mysterious Dispatches on a previously unknown subject airing tonight (Saturday 16 September).
On Friday (15 September), viewers noticed the episode on TV schedules during a prime spot on Saturday evening.
The episode was originally listed without a title as a Dispatches Special, with its description reading: “A 90-minute special Dispatches investigation.”
However, it has now been revealed that the episode is named Russell Brand: In Plain Sight: Dispatches. The description reads: “Dispatches investigates Russell Brand’s treatment of women.”
The documentary follows a lengthy investigation by The Times and The Sunday Times in collaboration with Channel 4, which sees comedian, actor and broadcaster Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and emotionally abusing four women during the height of his fame.
The alleged assaults occurred between 2006 and 2013, while Brand was a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4, and include an assault on a 16-year-old girl.
Brand’s reported link to the Dispatches programme emerged on Friday night, as he released a video claiming that two “mainstream media outlets”, one of which was “a mainstream media TV company”, were planning a “coordinated attack” on him.
Dispatches is a long-running current affairs programme providing deep investigation into serious topical issues.
The documentary, as it was originally listed in Channel 4’s guide— (Channel 4)
While Brand did not name the “very, very serious criminal allegations”, which he said pertained to a time when he was “very promiscuous”, he said he “absolutely refutes” the claims.
How to watch Dispatches
Russell Brand: In Plain Sight: Dispatches airs on Channel 4 on Saturday at 9pm. It finishes at 10.30pm, and will be available to watch on Channel 4’s catch-up streaming service soon after.
What has Russell Brand said about the documentary?
In the video shared on Friday night to his YouTube channel, Get Him to the Greek star Brand claimed that “very serious allegations” are set to be made about him in a documentary and published in a newspaper on Saturday.
The 48-year-old said the allegations, which were put to him in “two extremely disturbing letters”, reference “a time when I was working in the mainstream, when... I was very, very promiscuous”.
Brand addressed the then-unnamed ‘allegations’ in a video shared on social media— (Russell Brand/X)
During his “time of promiscuity”, Brand said, “the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then. Almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now as well.
“To see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play?” he said.
Brand said there were witnesses who could “directly contradict” the claims being made against him in a “narrative” that two “mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently in what seems to me to be a very coordinated attack”.
Dispatches airs Saturday 16 September at 9pm on Channel 4.
Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk.
If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673)
