The nights are drawing in, the temperature’s dropping and the global economy is on the brink of collapse. What better time, then, for stand-up comedian Russell Howard to return with another helping of topical sketch and stand-up comedy in Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC3, Thursday, Oct 27)? As the show returns to BBC3 for a new series, TV&Satellite Week magazine caught up with him to find out more... It’s frustrating when big news stories break in between series of Russell Howard’s Good News... This year there’s been the riots, the fall of Gadaffi, all the phone-hacking stuff. Those are all stories people have strong opinions about, and that always makes the show so much better. Between my stand-up gigs and this show, I’ve got the best of both worlds... Stand-up is quite solitary, but when I’ve had enough of that it’s time for another series, sitting in a room writing with my mates. I appeared in a show with John Cleese at Sydney Opera House this summer... We went out for dinner and I was explaining The Inbetweeners to him. It was a bizarre moment. Maybe I’ve inspired him to do a pensioner’s version of The Inbetweeners, like Last of the Summer Wine. Actually, thinking about it, let’s hope not. I went to the premiere of The Inbetweeners film... I introduced my brother, Daniel, to the girls from the movie and he started telling them about a goal he’d scored playing for the cub scouts in 1990. It didn’t exactly get the conversation flowing. He honestly thought they were going to respond: ‘Was it against the run of play? Did you score again?’ I don’t get to watch much TV, but when I do my girlfriend runs the show... She likes The Dog Whisperer. You can recognise people who’ve watched that show, because they’ll say things to you like ‘Your dog thinks you’re the pack leader’, as if a dog makes decisions based on anything other than food. My dog has his own Facebook page... It was set up by some girl who’s a fan, and he now has more friends than my brother. I don’t wear the Russell Howard branded underpants you can buy on my website... That would be massively inappropriate – imagine the ego. I’m not a single man, but that would be pretty terrible.
