The BBC today broadcast an apology for the “grossly offensive” phone call made by two of their highest paid broadcasters to the Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

The apology ran just after 10am, the slot usually occupied by one of the offending stars, Jonathan Ross, currently suspended without pay for three months, and will be repeated this evening during the slot formerly occupied by the other offender Russell Brand, who has since resigned.

The BBC apologised to licence fee payers and said the phone call to Sachs’s answering machine should never have been recorded or broadcast.

Ross, reputed to earn £6m a year from the BBC, and Brand left messages claiming Brand had slept with the actor’s granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. Both have already publicly apologised to the actor.

The full apology stated: “On 18 October, the BBC broadcast an exchange between Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on the Russell Brand show on Radio 2. This concerned the actor Andrew Sachs and his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

Some of this exchange was left on the voicemail of Mr Sachs. The conversation was grossly offensive and an unacceptable intrusion into the private lives of both Mr Sachs and Ms Baillie.

“It was a serious breach of editorial standards, and should never have been recorded or broadcast. The BBC would like to apologise unreservedly to Mr Sachs, Ms Baillie and to our audiences as licence fee payers.”

Both broadcasters have already publicly apologised to the actor.

"Sachsgate" claimed a second BBC 2 scalp yesterday with the resignation of David Barber, the station's head of specialist music and compliance. He cleared the offensive prank for broadcast. Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas quit last month. The controversy has resulted in more than 40,000 complaints and censure from the Prime Minister who criticised Ross and Brand for "inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour".

An internal inquiry is currently being carried out into the events which led to the call being broadcast.

Baillie, 23, whose stage name is Voluptua, dances with a burlesque troupe known as the Satanic Sluts. She has since called for Brand and Ross to be reinstated, saying the resignation and three-month suspension without pay was “out of proportion”.

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