Russell Brand to marry Katy Perry in Tokyo?

Russell Brand is said to have his eyes set on Tokyo for marriage to Katy Perry.

Brand accused of 'mindless idiocy' for heroin joke

Russell Brand has been accused of 'mindless idiocy' for joking that young musicians should take heroin to save the music industry.

Russell Brand's getting his hair chopped

Russell Brand is is preparing to kiss his luscious curls goodbye for the sake of his Hollywood film career.

The unstoppable rise of Russell Brand

Eighteen months ago, the comedian's career seemed on the edge of collapse. Now he's on the verge of international stardom. So what went right?

Russell Brand and Katy Perry deny break-up rumours

Russell Brand and Katy Perry look more loved-up than ever as they left LA this weekend. The couple have been battling rumours that they are on the verge of breaking up but appeared happier than ever as they walked through Los Angeles International Airport yesterday.

When the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand "Sachsgate" mini-drama fizzled away, the world in which I work was changed for ever by the c-word - compliance. I can no longer listen to programmes for reviewing purposes without them having been signed off by multiple layers of managers, especially and primarily at Radio 2. So I have not been able to enjoy the first of the returning series of one of my favourite radio comedies. I hope and imagine that this tale of a 38-year-old gamer, entirely at the mercy of his ruthless mother, will be as funny as the past two series. But whatever the content, we can, at least, be assured that it's ticked all the correct boxes.

Lock up your granddaughters: Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross are reunited for the first time since Sachsgate as one of the teams on this annual topical ding-dong. Expect edgy banter from the controversial pair, alongside fellow panellists David Mitchell, Claudia Winkleman, Rob Brydon and Newswipe's Charlie Brooker. Jimmy Carr keeps score.

Catherine Tate's Nan, a ruthlessly truthful creation, is best taken short. Nan's Christmas Carol (BBC1, Friday), longer than usual and later than usual because of Nan's language, cast her as a combatative Scrooge making three ghosts and her deceased husband sorry they were born. Or died. The most eye- catching ghost was David Tennant, who bore a striking resemblance to Russell Brand.

Andrew Sachs probably won't be tuning in for this one. Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand are reunited on television for the first time since Sachsgate. However, this being Channel 4, don't expect a grovelling apology at the beginning but plenty of jokes about telephone calls, Spanish waiters and Satanic Sluts. Jimmy Carr is in the chair for what has become an annual festive highlight, poking fun at the biggest stories of the year. Ross and Brand have been cheekily paired together and up against them will be Claudia Winkleman and Rob Brydon and David Mitchell and the TV critic Charlie Brooker, making his first appearance. Peter Andre is among the celebrity questioners, but rumours that Tiger Woods will be appearing are wide of the mark.

You know what? - Rod Liddle eventually ruined this week. By Tuesday I was looking at everything on television, able only to wonder what Liddle would make of it. I'd been strapped into Liddle-goggles. What, for instance, is Liddle's stance on Russell Brand? Brand is 100 per cent white Anglo-Saxon - which presumably counts for at least ten Liddle points. Additionally, Brand talks like a souped-up Timothy Claypole from Rentaghost - which, in the absence of any more specific examples, one would presume is the kind of traditional, non-immigration-ruined British thing that Liddle would like. There's no modern rap-talk from Brand! It's all "I can't wait for the Great Exhibition of 1851!" this, and "Enjoy Pickwick's Patented Hair Pomade" the other.

However, a quick googling of Liddle's previous columns reveals that, in fact, he is down on Brand, big-time: "Smug, arrogant, over-paid, apparently stupid and not remotely entertaining." A fairly useful indicator to the rest of us that, given that Liddle hates him, Brand is probably awlright.

As the first real televisual access to Brand since last year's omni-demented Sachs-gate affair, The Road to Russell Brand: Skinned was an instructive insight into how Brand had dealt with it. Had he been a butterfly, broken on a wheel? Was he now tremulous, and wary?

"I was like - it's an exciting thing!" he beamed. "I'm in the middle of a storm - and I like it here! This is where I should always be!" Later on - referring to the incident on stage - he pointed out: "The thing is - I do worse than that every day."

Looking - with his big rack of teeth - very much like Mega Shark, the star of the recent B-movie Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, Brand spent an hour answering Frank Skinner's questions, intercut with documentary footage of his recent publicity strike in America and appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Jay Leno Show.

Skinner's questioning didn't kick off with immense threat or weight: "I've always thought beautiful people couldn't be funny - but you've proved this wrong," was his first "question" to Brand. Somewhere, Jeremy Paxman must have felt a stabbing pain in his duodenum. But as the hour went on, Skinner lobbed in a couple of interesting observations - not least noting that, "I always found that, in order to be a womaniser, you had to turn down your compassion and humanity to get laid" - a proposition that Brand didn't have any real riposte to.

"It takes a lot of discipline - more than I have - not to go 'I will f*** you, you know'," he beamingly explained, over footage of fans screaming his name.

Perhaps the most amazing revelation in Skinnned, however, was neither sexual nor centred on controversy. Instead, it was that Brand has someone on tour with him to do his hair and make-up. Darling, I adore how you look but, honestly - ratting up your hair and applying two tramlines of kohl like that could just as easily be achieved by someone in security, or catering.