While the noise surrounding Russell Brand’s sentencing this week has been booming, the silence from a man once famously in his inner circle is deafening: Noel Fielding.
After meeting at the NME Awards in the early 2000s, they became somewhat of a quirky double-act. They were regularly booked together as an off-the-wall package; hosted gigs like the Teenage Cancer Trust benefit; Fielding popped up on Brand’s BBC Radio 2 show; and they were a fan-favourite pairing on Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz of The Year. They were often photographed together at events and on nights out, up until 2012.
Fielding now presents The Great British Bake Off, one of the nation’s biggest TV shows, enjoyed by families across the country. This is why, given the wholesomeness of the programme and his past association with Brand, he surely has a responsibility to now speak out about his former friend’s conviction.
One historic clip that has been hard to stomach this week shows Brand and Fielding as teammates on Big Fat Quiz of the Year in 2007, dressed like some gothy panto double act, the ongoing joke being to keep them both away from a then 22-year-old Lily Allen sat beside Jonathan Ross.
“I’m a bit concerned because look where you’ve put us,” Ross tells host Jimmy Carr in the clip. “You’ve put the only sexually attractive young lady – well, the only young lady full stop, she happens to be very attractive as well – near two of the best known cocksmen of the business.”
Ross is referring to both Brand and Fielding. The pair then joke about rape and Jack the Ripper. “Now Lily might go home with her dress still on,” Ross quips as he settles into his new seat. Fielding is not facing any allegations of misconduct (or indeed facing allegations that he knew about the extent of Brand’s behaviour), but nonetheless this looks like a distasteful joke in hindsight.
On Tuesday, Ross released a statement about his relationship with Brand, after facing calls to speak on their friendship – similar calls are also being made of Fielding. At the time of writing, he has not said anything.
Ross has since faced criticism for another resurfaced joke he made at the British Comedy Awards in 2004, where he joked about David Walliams “going home with 15-year-olds”. Ross has now condemned two former close friends, Brand and Walliams, who has been accused of grooming girls as young as 15, which Walliams denies, stressing he was “genuinely unaware of their conduct”.
In a statement, Ross said: “I recognise how deeply shocking it is to revisit footage of a joke delivered by me at the Comedy Awards in 2004, in which I make light of the notion of Walliams going home with a 15-year-old.
“This joke was submitted to me by the Comedy Awards scriptwriting team, and I believed that the punchline was a reference to the fact he had publicly dated younger women, exaggerated for comic effect. It is also a tasteless joke that I would not dream of making today about anyone, but that is beside the point.
“Had I had any reason to suspect that it might be referring to actual events, I would not only have refused to use it, but I would not have felt comfortable continuing a personal or professional relationship with him. I also like to think that I would have acted upon that knowledge.”
It’s a start, but we need to hear more from those who surrounded Brand at this time.
Brand and Fielding’s careers and lives have taken extremely different trajectories since the height of their hazy days of falling out of clubs and into taxis with different women. Fielding has transformed his reputation from womanising party animal to presenter of the most wholesome show on British television. The only rock’n’roll element of his brand now is his abstract jumpers.
Fielding can’t stay quiet forever.