‘Russell is still my friend’: The former BBC presenter defending Brand

For a decade, Neil Oliver was known for his warm, accessible BBC archaeology series, Coast. After graduating from Glasgow University, he then worked as a journalist and archaeologist. When he and his friend, Tony Pollard, decided to self-fund an archaeological dig on the battlefields of the Anglo-Zulu war in southern Africa, the duo got noticed by TV producers, who gave them their own BBC2 show, Two Men in a Trench. After that, Oliver – who is now 59 – was taken on as presenter of Coast in 2005. With his flowing black hair, soothing Scottish lilt, and enthusiasm for the subject, he became one of the most recognisable, well-known factual TV presenters of the time, praised by critics as “nice to watch on a Sunday”. For some years, he tapped into the same niche in British broadcasting for archaeology and history, that Chris Packham tapped into for nature and wildlife. In some Mumsnet forums, there was annoyance about his “simpering” and “hair-tossing”, but that was about as controversial as he got. So how did the man at the helm of gentle, comforting weekend TV become a conspiracy theorist, anti-establishment commentator, and a defender of Russell Brand – even after Brand was convicted of rape? On 6th November 2026, the day after Brand was found guilty, Oliver re-posted a picture of himself with the sex offender from April 2025, with the caption, “Russell Brand is my friend”. In this recent X post, he added, “Still is.” Oliver and Brand (who has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison) don’t appear to be old friends, but rather two men aligned by a similar anti-mainstream feeling. They have, in the last few years, bonded over their vaccine-scepticism, climate-denial, and their parroting of right-wing conspiracy theories.Just as Brand began in the Covid-19 pandemic posting videos of medical misinformation, and MAGA-inspired content, Oliver also began making lengthy, rant-filled videos questioning lockdown measures, vaccine safety, and accused “mainstream media” of silencing him. He promoted the unproven conspiracy theory that vaccines cause fast-developing “turbo cancers”, which drew criticism from media watchdogs, and the public. Ofcom declined to launch a formal investigation, concluding that the comments represented personal opinion protected by broadcasting rules on freedom of expression. Oliver – who lives in Stirling, Scotland with his wife Trudi, and has three grown-up children – then presented his own GB News show in 2021, although he left the channel after nine episodes. During that time he frequently used the psychological term “menticide” — traditionally defined as the deliberate “murder of the mind” or systematic brainwashing — to describe what he sees as a coordinated effort by global oligarchs to destroy individual critical thinking. His shift away from mainstream broadcasting continued, when he resigned from the Royal Society of Edinburgh [RSE] in 2023 because – an RSE spokesperson said – his views were at odds with the scientific and academic standards of the institution. “There is no climate crisis,” Oliver wrote on X in July 2023. That same year he started calling himself, “conspiracy Gandalf” [ J.R.R Tolkien’s fictional wizard], and put the moniker on t-shirts which he began selling on his website. “I want one of these. I want it here and I want it now,” fellow GB News host Laurence Fox wrote of the Oliver’s merchandise. Oliver now seems to makes a living not from the BBC, which used to be his broadcasting home, but from the royalties of his 14 historical and archeological books (four published by Penguin), as well The Neil Oliver Channel on YouTube, where he has 360,000 subscribers, and Russell Brand was a frequent guest. He also has space on content-creation platform Patreon, where subscribers pay for his video content. By doubling down on his friendship with Brand, post-rape conviction, Oliver may be giving the impression that he subscribes to the manosphere idea that Brand’s guilty verdict is a news media conspiracy. In his online monologues, Oliver has told his audiences “there is no democracy anywhere in the world” and that mainstream news networks (like the BBC) are simply broadcasting “fake news” to manipulate us all. Oliver has also claimed, in 2023, that terms like “sexist” and “misogynist” are “bandied about with wild abandon” by the establishment purely to silence men. He has also said that grooming ring scandals in the UK happened because the government allowed the “wholesale rape of underage white working-class female children” to protect diversity agendas. Oliver appeared on Alex Jones’s [American far-right conspiracy theorist] Infowars channel, where Oliver talked about historical events like the Vietnam war being staged, and the September 11th attacks as “false flags” orchestrated “by a parasitic elite”. In explicitly endorsing deep far-right conspiracy theories, and showing an unwavering allegiance to convicted rapist Russell Brand, Oliver has burrowed deeper and deeper into the paranoid, misogynistic corners of the internet. Oliver is not alone in speaking out for Brand, seeing him as a flagbearer for the “post-trust” community. In America, Brand has become something of an anti-establishment icon, with his 6.6 million YouTube subscribers, and posts on Rumble (a platform which markets itself as “immune to cancel culture”). Just minutes after Brand was found guilty, Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News host, went live to her 4.1 million subscribers on YouTube. “I don’t believe the charges,” she said, “and I don’t have to believe them just because the jury came through with the opposite conclusion.” She added, “I feel indignant that this obvious conservative stalwart has been targeted.” Since then, Elon Musk has replied to a user’s post on X about Brand, calling his conviction for decade-old offences, an example of “ a crazy legal standard” [referring to the fact that in Britain there is no statute of limitations on bringing a sexual offences case, whereas in the US it depends on the state]. After the 2023 allegations came out against Brand, Tony Lyons, who runs MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Action, an American group closely allied with the US Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, told him; “You’ve just been a great force in the world and a great force for MAHA.” He also said at the time that he believed Brand was falsely accused. “We will stand up for you every week, week after week.” How Oliver responds to Brand’s sentencing (might he visit his “friend” in prison?) remains to be seen. In an interview Oliver gave The Telegraph in 2015, when he was still in the mainstream broadcasting world, he said; “I am planning to be a millionaire before I die but I don’t have a plan as to how that will happen. I’ll be doing more TV, writing more books. I’ve just published my first novel and I plan to do more fiction in the future. The idea of setting up my own production company is there but so far the right project and set of circumstances hasn’t presented itself.” Instead, Oliver will likely keep wearing Brand’s mantle of outrage. “I feel like I speak for a silenced group of people,” Oliver said when facing backlash over saying that he would “cheerfully risk catching Covid” for the sake of freedom. “There may be millions for all I know,” he said on his channel, “but they haven’t had access to a microphone, they haven’t had a chance to express their feelings… I feel that I am in a position to do that. The amount of support I get from letters, real letters from the Royal Mail and on all sorts of platforms, makes me ever more determined to keep airing my views because I’m reassured again and again that I speak for many, many people.”