Russell Howard interview

Russell Howard says "If a comedian's naughty joke is on the front page, there's no

This week's edition of Good News had something for everyone. If you like Russell Howard, you will no doubt find this particular episode up to his usual standard. If you don't like Howard you'll get the joy of seeing him being beaten up by an old lady: if only more pensioners practiced martial arts then the world would be a happier place.

The thing with this series is that it's not the most satirical show in the world. It touches on some big topics covered in the news, but it's always in a light-hearted manner. Most of the time it's trivial human interest stories which he mocks, including clips from online and around the world.

Indeed there is quite a lot of garbage out there which is ripe for mocking, from newspaper stories devoted to a house that looks like Adolf Hitler to the TV coverage given to a man who showers with a squirrel.

Interestingly, quite a bit of this week's edition was disturbing and a little frightening. The budget lady-boy airline sketch might have mentally scarred many, as would have the excerpt from Rebecca Black's 'Friday' (I've been trying my hardest not to listen to that stupid song. To be honest, I put it on mute rather than listen to it in case it really is as horrible as people claim it to be.)

The best thing about Good News, though, is fittingly the good news story at the end, in this case about an Indian cook who gave up his job to feed the homeless. It really is good to see some news is treated with the respect and airtime it should be given, and Howard really does capture that well.

And it's certainly arguable that the laid-back and fun approach of Russell Howard's Good News is one of the best forms of satire, along with the harder hitting, informed, Mark Thomas style of satirical comedy and activism. That's possibly why 10 O'Clock Live does nothing for me. It just sits in the middle - trying to be hard-hitting but failing to do so - and loses viewers because of it.

The happy-faced comic returns from his latest sell-out arena tour to host a new series of topical comedy. In terms of ratings, Good News is huge on BBC3 and massive on the BBC iPlayer, but there's nothing fancy or new about it: almost all of it is Howard himself on a stage in front of an audience, doing gags about what's been in the news. Comedians have been trying that with mixed results for decades, so the show's success must be down to Howard himself, who leavens the standard whatever-next cracks with a lot of positive energy. As before, he'll end every show this year with a feel-good story of courage or kindness.

Russell Howard's Blog News

Want to submit a story to the new series of Russell Howard's Good News? The production team have message for you...

This simple, but seemingly effective, comedy/current affairs series is now into its fourth series. Russell Howard is an award-winning comedian who has been on the panel show circuit for years, regularly popping up on Mock the Week and the like. His humour is best described as straightforward - few of his jokes tax the brains of his viewers too much and they're often easy to predict. However, he certainly has his moments and last year Good News's ratings reached 3.5 million viewers, which is huge for a digital channel like BBC Three. Tonight he returns to give his take on the week's news stories.

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How ill is that pigeon?

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Questions from the queue part II

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What is Qatar?

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Good news from Good News

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