EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand befriended a heroin addict before reducing him to tears after

Disgraced comedian Russell Brand made a ‘depraved’ TV documentary in which he befriended a heroin addict, then reduced him to tears by offering £50 to let him sleep with his prostitute girlfriend.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal social services were called after Brand spent a week living with the couple and their toddler daughter at their Norwich home before making his sordid proposal, which was rejected.

At times during filming, Brand’s sidekick Matt Morgan was left to look after the couple’s child because everyone else in the house was high on drugs. Brand was still a heroin addict himself at the time and later admitted ‘using with them [the couple] the whole time we were making the programme’.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that the boss of the company behind the programme, which never aired, called social services after being shown the disturbing footage.

The shocking episode is a new low for Brand, 48, who is facing rape and sexual assault allegations from four women, including a woman who was 16 years old when she claims he sexually assaulted her. He denies the claims.

At times during filming, Brand’s sidekick Matt Morgan (pictured right) was left to look after the couple’s child because everyone else in the house was high on drugs

In a podcast earlier this year, Mr Morgan recalled making a ‘comedy’ docuseries called RE:Brand made for the now defunct channel Play UK, in which they filmed one episode living with the heroin-addicted couple. He said: ‘The guy who ran the production company watched it and said, ‘This can’t go on telly because they’ll lose custody of their child.’ ‘

The show was made by well-regarded Vera Productions and was grandly hailed by Brand and Morgan, his then writing partner, as a way of exploring the idea of whether ‘anyone would sleep with prostitutes if they weren’t able to dehumanise them’.

Morgan recalled that after a week spent ‘helping’ the couple, Brand turned to the boyfriend and said: ‘I want to give you 50 quid . . . I’m going to have sex with her.’

Morgan added that the boyfriend ‘started crying . . . it was actually really beautiful and in the end they all cried . . . it was properly mental. It took me about two or three days coming back to my normal life to unpack it all. It was almost like you needed counselling’. A source with knowledge of the programme said ‘it was all rather depraved, dirty and squalid’.

Brand references the incident in his memoir My Booky Wook, writing that the woman was ‘pimped out’ by her partner. He said the man’s tearful response to his cash-for-sex proposal made him feel terrible, ‘but I still thought, ‘This is what you’re doing every day, it’s just that you’ve got to know me.’ ‘

Morgan revealed that he and Brand had first met the junkie couple a few weeks earlier while on a drug-addled holiday in Norfolk.

He told the Blethered podcast hosted by broadcaster Sean McDonald: ‘Me and him [Brand] went on a holiday and hired a boat. We f***** it up completely. We smoked weed and drank and the boat was wrecked.

‘We thrashed it, we went out into open sea and it was mental. Then I caught a cold because there was only one blanket and Russell had it. I was ill and we went to a hotel and he was full-on sex addiction mode and he was like, ‘I need to go and f*** a prostitute.’

‘So he went and came back and said, ‘I couldn’t do it – I went round her house and there was like kids’ toys and it was really grim and I felt really sorry for her and the situation was really awful.’

‘So when we got back to London, we were like, ‘That’s interesting that she was too humanised you couldn’t do it, so clearly prostitution’s wrong. If you knew that person, could you go through with it?’ ‘ He said this is what spawned the idea to return to Norfolk and live with the couple for an episode of the RE:Brand series.

Morgan said the situation with the heroin-addicted couple was ‘f****** tragic’, adding: ‘She was on the game supporting hers and his heroin addiction, and there was a kid in the house, and that was why we couldn’t show it. There was points where they were all ‘gouching’ – nodding off on smack, with this poor little kid running around. So you’re making this documentary but I’m making a sandwich for this little kid because no one else is, and it was just tragic, it was awful.’

Morgan said other ideas for RE:Brand were shelved.

Writing in My Booky Wook, Brand recalled: ‘One discarded RE:Brand idea which it’s probably best we didn’t follow up was: ‘Let’s get loads of prostitutes, make them live with my mum, and she’ll be their pimp’ . . . I remember the phone call very clearly: ‘Mum, can I have loads of prostitutes come and live round your house for a TV programme?’

‘ ‘Yeah OK,’ she replied in that same soft and gentle voice she always used as she continued resolutely in her mission to love me.’

Last week Brand was accused of exposing himself to a woman in 2008 and then laughing about it on his Radio 2 show with Morgan, who told listeners that Brand ‘showed his willy to a lady’.

In a statement Morgan said he stopped working for Brand ‘several years ago’. He added: ‘During the time I worked with him, I was never aware of any allegations of serious sexual misconduct against him. I absolutely condemn all forms of mistreatment of women.’

Brand has said the allegations made against him in the last week are part of a vendetta against him by the ‘mainstream’. On Friday night, he released a video on social media channels thanking his followers for their ‘support and for questioning the information that you have been presented with’.

He went on to announce he would be returning his show on Rumble – an online video platform – after adverts on his YouTube channel were suspended in light of the allegations.

In a rambling speech, he accused the British Government of demanding that big technology platforms censor his online content and took a swipe at his former employer the BBC for its ‘trusted news initiative’ that tackles fake news. Several women have come forward to make allegations against the comedian, which they claim happened at the height of his fame.

The shocking allegations, said to have occurred between 2003 and 2013, include the alleged rape of a woman at his home in Los Angeles and the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old schoolgirl.

Brand has denied the accusations, claiming all of his relationships had been consensual.