If Russell Brand’s interview with Jimmy Savile happened today, we’d be thankful for the Twitterstorm

In 2007, before Twitter rage and pile-ons, Brand offered up his female assistant to go to Savile's place naked. With little social media to provide a forum for outrage, no action was taken

Like most people, I was appalled to hear Russell Brand's BBC Radio 2 interview with Jimmy Savile from 2007. And, like most people, even without the benefit of hindsight, I can't quite believe anyone found it anything but appalling at the time. I kind of had to listen to it from behind the sofa. It was to do with Brand sending his very attractive" female assistant round to Savile's place to perform services, naked. Or something like that. I'm sure you can find it for yourselves if you really want the full picture.

Yes, those were different times, but not that different. So where was the outrage? Where did it go? We often yearn for the days before social media took over our lives, but social media might have made a difference here. Twitterstorms, pile-ons and trolling were terms unfamiliar to us then, and phenomena which the liberal-minded are now generally against. But a bit of a Twitterstorm might have done the trick. Brand, Savile and whoever was in charge might well have found themselves at the bottom of a right old pile-on and had to hang their heads in shame.

Adrian Chiles is a Guardian columnist

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