Sir, The case of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand shows a fundamental fault in the current regulatory and governance arrangements for the BBC.

Because it is likely that the BBC broke Ofcom’s guidance on “harm and offence”, the watchdog has begun its own investigation into the case. Meanwhile, the BBC has launched an internal review that will report next month to the corporation’s own regulator, the BBC Trust.

So we now have two regulators looking at the same case causing confusion all round. To whom should the public complain? Which regulator should pre-empt the other?

In 2005 the House of Lords BBC Charter Select Committee recommended that there should be a unitary BBC board responsible for governing the C; and that Ofcom should regulate all BBC television and radio content.

This would be both clearer and demonstrably independent. It would also mean that the chairman of the board (as opposed to the trust) could stand up and apologise on behalf of the corporation.

Lord Fowler

Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications

Sir, One can take a British audience a long way but, when comedians such as Brand and Ross laugh at us more than we laugh at them, it’s time for the next act.

Robin Davis

Twickenham

Sir, I have been listening to the weekly podcasts of the Russell Brand show for some months. His humour involves extensive use of innuendo, is peppered with blatant references to sex and is both irreverent and risqué. Knowing all that, it is my choice to listen to what is usually a highly amusing and interesting diversion to my daily commute.

The furore about this incident is preposterous, particularly as the “thousands” of people expressing outrage cannot possibly have heard the show when it was broadcast. They must therefore have deliberately sought out repeats on the internet, thereby choosing to listen to something that they already knew to be controversial.

Dare I also suggest that Georgina Baillie and her fellow Satanic Sluts Extreme will now be over their attack of the vapours, buoyed by the tide of free publicity.

If you listen to Brand, you know what you are in for, and each broadcast carries a warning regarding adult content. The only person with a genuine grievance is Andrew Sachs, who deserves our sympathy and to whom Brand, Ross and the BBC owe a sincere and substantial apology. All the rest is hypocritical hot air.

Les Wilson

Farnborough, Hants

Sir, While in no way condoning the recent antics of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, it seems to me that there is rather a hysterical reaction to them — this is just an extreme example of the BBC’s desperate wish to engage with youth culture in order to gain younger audiences.

It is plain what kind of humour you might expect in tuning in to listen to these two (and others like them), but obviously enough people tune into Ross on Friday night TV to justify his large salary, however crude he may be.

Clare Heaton

Croydon

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