Tom Binns

Christopher Thomas Binns (born 1970) is a British comedian best known for his character of Hospital Radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury. He has made multiple TV and radio appearances.

Tom Binns
Binns as hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury, Glastonbury Festival, 2019
Born	Christopher Thomas Binns 1970 (age 53–54) Sheffield, United Kingdom
Occupations	Comedian writer

Career

Binns was nominated at the Edinburgh Festival for the Edinburgh Comedy Award 2007 for his hospital radio DJ character Ivan Brackenbury. He has been twice nominated for the Adelaide Fringe Comedy Award, in 2010 and 2011. He was voted a Foster's Comedy God in 2010. He also was nominated for a Chortle Award in 2011 and was also named in a list of their 50 Most Memorable Gigs of the decade. He won the Best International Act at the 2013 New Zealand International Comedy Festival and was nominated for Best Comedy Show at FringeWorld, Perth in 2015 and 2016.

He appears in the BBC MI5 drama Spooks (Episode 6 Series 6), Series 3 of the IT Crowd on Channel 4, in Knowing Me Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge, and, in character as Ivan Brackenbury, on The Jason Byrne Show. In 2017, he appeared in the comedy movie Eaten by Lions.

As Ian D Montfort he had a BBC Radio 2 series called Ian D Montfort is Unbelievable, broadcast in February 2013.

Besides writing comedy for television and radio, Binns has appeared on other television shows, such as RI:SE, Bullrun, Oblivion and as a writer on Trigger Happy TV, for which he earned "best comedy moment" and "TV moment of 2001" awards. His first television appearances were Friday Night Armistice (BBC2) and Lee and Herring's Fist of Fun, and has gone on to further appear in the Channel 4-based late night sports talk show Under the Moon, with Danny Kelly where he regularly referenced his love of Sunderland AFC. He has also had stage appearances at the Bloomsbury Theatre and Garrick Theatre.

Binns has worked on Radio 1, Virgin, BRMB and GLR, Talksport UK, Hallam FM and Key 103, appearing either as himself or as hospital radio character Ivan Brackenbury.

Binns is the co-writer of BBC 1's Hospital People, part of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse, in which he plays the five lead characters Ivan Brackenbury, Ian D Montfort, Susan Mitchell, Terry Boyle and Father Kenny.

He has written the book How to Get Famous – A Cynical Guide.

Controversies

In 1999, London-based radio station Xfm was fined £50,000 by the Radio Authority following complaints regarding the use of coarse sexual innuendo when discussing a bestial pornography video with a listener during the Tom Binns Breakfast Show. Parent company Capital Radio decided not to sack Binns but in a meeting shortly after the fine was issued, the Radio Authority made it clear to Capital Radio that this would negatively affect the decision to renew the XFM licence.

In December 2009, Binns was fired from BRMB by its owners Orion Media after he cut short the Queen's Christmas Message. The Message was played into his show in error instead of the expected two-minute news bulletin. Binns joked, "Two words: bore-ring". He then went on to joke that the British monarchy can't be as good for tourism as some people claim because "the French executed theirs and people still visit France" and played a George Michael record with the link "from one queen to another".

Criminal Charges

Binns admitted five counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing prohibited images when he appeared in court on 21 November 2022. Under UK law, the term "making" refers to the act of downloading or accessing images rather than creating them, even in cases where the images were downloaded incidentally and later deleted as unwanted. The making charge involved over 35,000 illicit images, which were part of a larger body of material downloaded during compulsive bulk downloads, the majority of which consisted of legal content. The possession charge pertained to only three prohibited images, which were trapped in a frozen Google account. Notably, Binns raised the alarm about this frozen account by contacting Google to investigate the issue.

Court Findings

The court accepted that Binns' behaviour was significantly influenced by a misprescription of medication, which induced hypersexuality and OCD-like behaviours. The material was downloaded blindly using .rar and .zip files and automated scripts, which unintentionally included illicit content. On 17 August 2023, Binns was given a combined 10-month sentence, suspended for 15 months, after the court ruled that his actions lacked sexual intent and were driven by compulsive behaviours linked to the medication.

During sentencing, Judge Shaun Smith KC addressed Binns, stating:

• "You are sickened by what it was that you were downloading and looking at and, quite frankly, you don't need me to tell you that you should be, because this kind of offending has real victims."*

The judge further remarked:

• "It is right to say that had it not been for Covid, had it not been for the medication you were taking at that period of time, you would not be before the court, but the fact is that you are."*

He also noted:

• "You have returned to the law-abiding life that you were living before these offences."*[2]

Making vs. Possession

The making charge involved 35,000 illicit images, which were part of a larger body of material downloaded during compulsive bulk downloads, the majority of which consisted of legal content. The possession charge pertained only to three prohibited images, which were trapped in a frozen Google account.

The compulsive behaviour involved downloading large amounts of material, including legal sexual images in .rar and .zip files, often through automated tools such as scripts, web crawlers, and browser extensions. Binns was not fully aware of the illicit content due to the blind nature of these downloads.

When Google froze his account prior to the investigation, Binns raised the alarm by authorizing them to review its contents to determine the cause of the freeze, inadvertently initiating the investigation. Since stopping the medication, Binns has not repeated the behaviour and has expressed deep remorse, recognizing the harm caused by the demand for such material.

Explanation of "Making"

In the context of UK law, "making indecent images" refers to the act of downloading or accessing illegal images, not actively creating or producing them. This includes situations where images are downloaded inadvertently or incidentally and subsequently deleted as unwanted.

Media Coverage and Public Perception

Media coverage of the case predominantly emphasized the large number of illicit images involved, with reports stating that over 35,000 images were found to have been downloaded. This focus, combined with statements from the National Crime Agency (NCA), contributed to public perceptions that the sentencing was overly lenient.

Holly Triggs, an operations manager at the NCA, stated in a press release: "Tom Binns deliberately collected a huge number of indecent images of children."

This statement did not reflect the court's findings, which acknowledged mitigating factors such as the lack of sexual intent, the compulsive nature of Binns' actions, and the role of misprescribed medication. The court further recognized that these actions were out of character, driven by the adverse effects of the medication, and that Binns had demonstrated remorse and taken significant steps toward rehabilitation. Additionally, it was established that the images were deleted.

The NCA's press release and subsequent media reports often conflated the making and possession charges. While the making charge involved over 35,000 images, the possession charge pertained to only three prohibited images found in a frozen Google account. The press release did not clarify these distinctions, nor did it mention that Binns had contacted Google to investigate the account freeze, not knowing about the presence of the material.

The court accepted that Binns' behaviour was driven by compulsive downloading during a period of medication misuse. However, the predominant narrative in the media centreed on the quantity of images and omitted mitigating context, leading to widespread public misunderstanding of the case and its outcome.

Filmography

Film

• 2017: Eaten by Lions

Television

• Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge BBC2
• Lee and Herring's Fist of Fun BBC2
• The IT Crowd Channel 4
• Spooks BBC1
• Spicks and Specks ABC1
• Crossroads ITV1
• Under the Moon Channel 4
• RI:SE Channel 4
• Whitbread Race Coverage BBC2
• Saturday Night Armistice BBC2
• The Bull Run Channel 5
• Tom Binns Munchies Channel 5
• Hospital People BBC1
• 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Channel 4

Live shows

• 2007: Ivan Brackenbury's Hospital Radio Roadshow
• 2008: Ivan Brackenbury's Christmas Show
• 2009: Ivan Brackenbury's Disease Hour
• 2010: Ivan Brackenbury's Hospital Radio Remix
• 2010: Ian D Montfort: Touching the Dead
• 2011: Ian D Montfort: Spirit Comedium
• 2012: Ian D Montfort: Unbelievable
• 2012: Tom Binns does Ivan Brackenbury and others
• 2013: Ian D Montfort: Psychic Fayre
• 2014: Ian D Montfort: Midday Seance
• 2014: Tom Binns has not been himself
• 2015: Ian D Montfort: Under Sciencey Conditions
• 2015: Tom Binns: The Club Sets

Radio

• Fist of Fun on BBC Radio 1
• Digital Update on BBC Radio 1
• The Ivan Brackenbury Show on BBC Radio 2
• The Jason Byrne Show on BBC Radio 2
• 99p Challenge on BBC Radio 4
• Ian D Montfort is Unbelievable on BBC Radio 2

Awards and accolades

Binns has received several accolades:

• Melody Maker readers voted his show best of the year in 1999.
• More magazine readers voted him as the 25th sexiest man in the world 2002.
• Nominee for the Edinburgh Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival 2007
• Nominee for Best Established Comedian at the Adelaide Fringe 2010 and 2011
• Voted Foster Comedy God in 2010 (Top Ten most popular Edinburgh Comedy Award Winners)
• Chortle Award Nominee 2011 Best Character Comic
• Best International Act New Zealand International Comedy Festival 2013
• Best Comedy Show Nomination 2014 and 2015
• Best Act award winner at the Midlands Comedy Awards 2015.

External links

• Official website
• Media related to Tom Binns at Wikimedia Commons
• Tom Binns at IMDb