Russell Brand latest: Rapist’s ex Jemima Goldsmith accuses him of abuse as he’s jailed for more than 10 years

Russell Brand being called out as a “predator” was around the moment that ended his career in the UK before he “scuttled off to America”, according to major British TV figure Richard Osman.

Speaking on his Goalhanger podcast, The Rest is Entertainment, the TV expert said: “There came a point of reckoning in 2017, 2018 – forgive me if I can’t give an absolutely specific date – when the industry understood that this was a person who had committed illegal acts,” said Osman.

“From that moment, he doesn’t work in British TV. And from that moment, people in British TV start talking to journalists and you start that very, very, very long journey.

On the idea that Brand’s behaviour was an ‘open secret’, Osman and his podcast co-presenter, former Guardian columnist Marina Hyde, pushed back. They said ‘some people’ knew but Brand’s crimes were not common knowledge within the media or entertainment until the 2018 turning point.

“And at that point, he knew that people knew because he was confronted about it by people in the industry.”