TV producer and presenter Richard Osman has claimed he knew Russell Brand was ‘awful… right from the beginning’, despite the pair never meeting.Osman, 55, worked as a creative director at Endemol UK, the production company which gave Brand his big break when he was hired to present Big Brother spin-off programmes in the mid-noughties.Osman has said that whilst he ‘never worked with [Brand] and never met him… right from the beginning, I thought he was awful. I thought he’s talentless,’ and added that he had heard the comedian had a reputation for being ‘a sleaze’.The TV personality and podcaster served as Endemol UK’s Deputy Creative Director in 2004 and Creative Director from 2005 onwards, focusing on developing and producing quiz and game shows.Brand was hired by Endemol in 2004, three years after he was fired from his first TV presenting job at MTV when he arrived to work dressed as Osama bin Laden on September 12, 2001. After attending rehab for drug addiction, he landed a hosting role on Big Brother’s spin-off show Big Brother’s Eforum, later renamed as Big Mouth, in 2004, which was produced by Endemol UK.Speaking on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment with co-host Marina Hyde, Osman reflected on what he had heard about the rising star during this time. TV producer and presenter Richard Osman has said ‘right from the beginning’ of Russell Brand’s TV career, ‘I thought he was awful’ (Brand pictured on Big Brother in 2006) Osman worked as a creative director at Endemol UK, the production company which gave Brand his big break when he was hired to present Big Brother spin-off programmes ‘From someone who was in the heart of the comedy and entertainment industry, and by the way, I will argue that Russell Brand was in neither of those industries, he was in an industry all of his own.’I’ve never worked with him, never met him. Right from the beginning, I thought he was awful. I thought he’s talentless, all of that.”But that’s fine. None of that is illegal, right?’ Osman continued. ‘But I’m not interested in working with him. I can’t think of any actual comedy producer who’d be particularly interested in working with him.’He’s not someone who can be collegiate. So, I definitely knew that about him.’I sort of knew who he was. He was working on MTV and things. And I was like, “that’s not something that interests me”. [He] gets more famous. You certainly hear that he is a sleaze, right? Again, not illegal, not nice.’Again, not someone you would want to work with, not someone who I can think of anyone I know who particularly want to work with, but the guy’s a sleaze and the guy is sex obsessed and the guy runs around with a group of people who have that same aesthetic.’During his time hosting Big Brother’s Big Mouth Brand allegedly turned production staff into ‘pimps’ to identify audience members to be ‘lambs to the slaughter’ in his bedroom.It was a Dispatches investigation for Channel 4 in September 2023, alongside The Times and Sunday Times, that led to women coming forward. Speaking on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment with co-host Marina Hyde, Osman reflected on what he had heard about the rising star during this timeIn their own probe in 2024, Channel 4 chiefs said one complaint had not been passed up the senior management chain.The production firm behind Big Brother, Banijay UK, formerly Endemol, also found staff made informal complaints that weren’t escalated.Banijay said in 2024: ‘We are extremely sorry to anyone who was impacted by this behaviour and felt unable to speak up or that their voice was not properly heard.’Later in his podcast, Osman explained when he and industry colleagues first heard rumours of Brand’s behaviour.’There came a point of reckoning in 2017, 2018 – forgive me if I can’t give an absolutely specific date – when the industry understood that this was a person who had committed illegal acts,’ said Osman.’From that moment, he doesn’t work in British TV. And from that moment, people in British TV start talking to journalists and you start that very, very, very long journey.’Osman and his podcast co-presenter, former Guardian columnist Hyde, pushed back on the idea that Brand’s behaviour was an ‘open secret’, insisting that while ‘some people’ knew, the allegations were not common knowledge within their industries until the 2018 turning point.Osman said: ‘As a starting point on the idea that everyone knew, yes, everyone knew from 2017, 2018, and that’s the point in which he did not work again, and that’s when he scuttled off to America…’And at that point, he knew that people knew because he was confronted about it by people in the industry.’Hyde added: ‘We can see that Katherine Ryan, at a certain point, made as clear as she possibly could within the legal bounds, made accusations.’Brand was jailed for ten-and-a-half years at Southwark Crown Court on Monday after being convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault.