QUICK TAKES - April 4, 2009

Britain’s broadcast regulator hit the BBC with a record fine Friday for lewd prank phone calls made to a veteran actor by talk show host Jonathan Ross and comedian Russell Brand.

The Office of Communications ordered the BBC to pay $219,000 -- the highest fine levied on the BBC for a single incident -- for an on-air radio routine last year in which Brand and Ross left recorded messages for Andrew Sachs joking about how Brand had had sex with the actor’s granddaughter.

The two later laughed that Sachs might hang himself as a result of the news.

The calls made during Brand’s radio program to Sachs -- best known for playing Spanish waiter Manuel in the 1970s program “Fawlty Towers” -- drew thousands of complaints.

Brand resigned after the incident, and Ross, who has his own television program on the BBC, was suspended without pay for 12 weeks. Two senior BBC executives also resigned over the scandal.