BBC Radio DJ Sara Cox has opened up about the impact Sacha Baron Cohen’s controversial interview still has on her, 22 years on. The comedian appeared on Sara’s BBC Radio 1 morning show in 2002 as his character Ali G, however things took a turn when the now 52-year-old used a series of expletives on-air.
During the show, which averaged seven million listeners each week, Baron Cohen made offensive comments and references to sex and drugs. He then swore when criticising the censorship of his song Me Julie, featuring Shaggy.
The Borat star said: “How is it that on this network people are allowed to say the word that starts with c and ‘son of a bitch’, but I can’t say ‘pooney’? How is that not racist? Answer me that.”
Sara, who was 27 at the time, was forced to apologise for the outburst on air and again after the programme. The BBC said it had received 20 complaints from listeners.
Recalling the incident on the new episode of How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, Sara, 49, admitted that “lessons have been learned.”
She said: “I was very young and I was definitely not prepared. Mistakes were made. The interview should not have been allowed to happen the way it did. We put too much trust in Sacha Baron Cohen because he wanted to do this interview and because he was being interviewed in character.
“He provided us with the questions and then scripted his answers about Ali G. Now that I think about it, I don’t think we did that. Or if we did, it would probably be a pre-recording if he was a controversial character trying to get as much publicity as possible.”
Reliving how the events unfolded following Baron Cohen’s expletives, Sara continued: “The world stopped spinning for a second. It was like… I can’t believe I just said that. I look at my producers and they look shocked and they’re laughing nervously.
“I just keep walking around like I don’t know what to do. Obviously I know it’s wrong and I need to stop the interview somehow, so I finally put a record on and then he’s gone.
“And then I sort of apologized to him. And the next day the headlines said it was totally my fault. It was all my fault. He wasn’t embarrassed for stitching me up.”
“I don’t know Sacha at all… I’m sure he did it because he wanted publicity and it really worked. But it affected me a lot. It was very hard.”
Sara added that she listened to the interview again a few years ago and that it left her feeling “sick and out of control” again.
At the time, a BBC Radio 1 spokesperson apologised for the incident, saying in a statement: “We are very sorry for any offence caused to our listeners. It is not something we take lightly.
“Everyone who attends our shows is aware of our content guidelines. The producers and everyone involved will have to sit down and discuss how this happened and how it can be avoided in the future.”
Sacha Baron Cohen had no comment.
How to Fail with Elizabeth Day is available wherever you get your podcasts.
