BBC radio and TV host Jonathan Ross, left, has been suspended for 12 weeks over an on-air prank. Comic and former host Russell Brand, at right, was initially suspended but has since resigned. BBC radio and TV host Jonathan Ross, left, has been suspended for 12 weeks over an on-air prank. Comic and former host Russell Brand, at right, was initially suspended but has since resigned. (Associated Press)

The BBC was wrong to have allowed a crude telephone comedy prank to make it to the airwaves, but management's response after the incident has been appropriate, the governing body in charge of the British public broadcaster said Friday.

The mid-October incident, in which two popular BBC hosts left lewd messages on an actor's answering machine about his granddaughter and then broadcast their recording days later, drew more than 35,000 complaints.

It was a "disappointing and dismal episode," Michael Lyons, chair of the BBC Trust, said on Friday.

Rising comedy star Russell Brand eventually quit his BBC radio show over the incident, as did Lesley Douglas, the BBC executive in charge of the channel on which his show was broadcast. Another executive also resigned.

The broadcaster's edgy, high-profile radio and TV host Jonathan Ross — who also took part in the prank calls to 78-year-old former Fawlty Towers cast member Andrew Sachs — was suspended for three months without pay.

The BBC Trust said it supports the suspension, but said no further action need be taken against Ross, reportedly one of the BBC's highest-paid personalities.

The fault lay in the lack of editorial control and judgment, according to the ruling.

"Putting Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross in the same studio, you could have predicted quite straightforwardly, was going to be a risky situation," Lyons said.

"This isn't rocket science."

In a statement, the BBC vowed to take more care on "the use of language, especially of the most offensive words of phrases."

Sachs, the target of the prank calls, did not comment, but his wife, Melody, spoke briefly to reporters on Friday.

"Andrew has got nothing to say. I don't suppose he wants to do anything more about it," she said. "We are so tired of all this stuff."

The actor's 23-year-old granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, said she was "happy" with the trust's ruling.

"It is now time to draw a line under the matter and move on," she told the BBC.

With files from the Associated Press