Russell Brand records video denying ‘serious allegations’ ahead of mystery Channel 4 Dispatches investigation set to air today

Russell Brand has taken to his YouTube channel to ‘absolutely deny’ what he called ‘serious allegations’ ahead of a mystery Channel 4 Dispatches investigation.

The much-anticipated programme is set to air on Saturday night, with speculation building over who or what could be at the centre of the investigation.

Rumours on Friday suggested the show will discuss a number of celebrities, and was said to be potentially damaging.

The comedian, actor and internet personality told his 6.5 million subscribers that there are ‘serious’ and ‘criminal allegations’ made against him which he ‘absolutely refutes’.

Brand said he had received two ‘extremely disturbing letters’ from a ‘mainstream media TV company’ and a newspaper.

The letters listed ‘a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel,’ Brand said.

‘But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, often very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,’ he continued.

‘These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous.’

He went on to say relationships he had during this time were ‘always consensual’.

‘I was always transparent about that. Then almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now as well,’ he said.

‘And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play? Particularly when we’ve seen coordinated media attacks before, like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn’t approve of, and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language.’

Brand’s statement came amid rumours on social media about whether a scandal about a famous person could feature in the investigation airing today.

The Channel 4 TV guide simply lists the hotly-anticipated programme as ‘New: Dispatches Special. A 90-minute special Dispatches investigation’.

A link to the programme page comes up with a message saying: ‘That page cannot be found. Either the address is incorrect or the page is no longer available.’

Radio Times magazine also had the programme in this week’s listings, with the description: ‘Dispatches – Investigation series covering issues in British society, politics, international current affairs, health, religion and the environment.’

The programme is due to finish at 10.30pm, but will also be repeated on Channel 4 on Sunday at 10.50pm and on Monday on its sister channel 4seven at 9pm.

Among those posting an image on X, formerly Twitter, of the description on the Channel 4 TV guide was the broadcaster’s news anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who said: ‘Something’s up’ before quickly deleting the message.

The Channel 4 News anchor and Strictly star’s post fuelled more speculation about the 90-minute special. He tweeted a picture of the schedule alongside the caption: ‘Something’s up’ before deleting it around an hour later. 

Sources close to Mr Guru-Murthy, 53, who has worked for Channel 4 for 25 years, said that he was told to take it down as the nature of the programme is ‘sensitive.’

Channel 4 has not yet returned MailOnline’s request for comment today. 

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