Russell Howard on the return of his hit comedy news show

Virgin Radio

10 Sep 2021, 10:51

The comedian joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the fifth series of The Russell Howard Hour, which premiered on Sky Max last night. He also chatted about Blur vs Oasis, and about a potential post-pandemic wave of creativity in the world.

The new series of The Russell Howard Hour sees the return of Playground Politics, where Russell travels around the country to chat to children, Life Lessons, featuring comedians tackling life’s biggest questions, and Good Deeds, championing the nation’s spirit of generosity. Plus, for the first time, there will be intimate live performances in a new strand titled The Spotlight. This series also welcomes the return of studio audiences. Russell told Chris: “We had 400 people in the studio this week, some of them wearing masks, some of them not. It was great. They were all together, it was beautiful. Last year, we didn’t have anyone in for the last four weeks.”

When talking to Chris about how the show’s production team still put chairs out in the studio during the last series, just to make it feel like there was an audience, Russell said: “Yeah they put the chairs out, like that was going to cheer me up! I just felt like a vicar with no crowd, man. It was awful. Do vicars have crowds?" 

On the return of a live audience, Russell said: “It was joyous because you could feel the energy of people just coming to the show, and then you, as the performer, surf off it. It’s the best. Last year, chairs don’t laugh, so you have to put in so much more, and it’s just that lovely thing where you go, ‘Oh yeah great. When you tell jokes and stories, people respond to them’. It was amazing.”

When talking about the Covid-19 restrictions that caused the world to come to a halt, Russell said: “To try and put a small glimmer of positivity on it, I think what might have happened during this 18 months, [is that] there will be so many young bands, and young directors, and comedians, and artists and creatives who have been kind of locked away for 18 months, and I would be amazed if there isn’t this stellar bombardment of creative brilliance that hits the world in the next 18 months.” 

The comedian added: “So there could be this odd, kind of glory to come from it. Do you know what I mean? The new Arctic Monkeys will have been sat in their houses, and chatting over Zoom and becoming brilliant at guitars. I really feel that, you know?”

When Chris, who watched a studio recording of this week’s episode of The Russell Howard Hour before it was edited down for television, complimented its host on how tight the show was and how there wasn’t the need for many retakes, Russell responded: “It’s because I wrote the show myself, and I wrote it with my pals. It’s a bit like a live stand-up show with guests and sketches and clips. So the only thing that’s a wee bit wobbly is the interviews, in that you don’t really know what’s going to happen, but I wouldn’t want to pre-empt them, I wouldn't want to set people up. I’d rather just have a ramble. We had Katie Piper, and we had Iain Stirling."

Teasing an upcoming episode, Russell said: "I interviewed one of my heroes, and I’m not allowed to talk about it. He’s going to be on the show in a couple of weeks. It’s a comedian of some renown down the years.” 

During their chat, Chris and Russell went off on a tangent about the fact that Noel Gallagher popped into the Virgin Radio studios yesterday to talk about the upcoming film, Oasis Knebworth 1996, which documents the band’s two historic gigs. This caused Russell to reminisce, saying: “I would have been 16 years old. It was the summer of Blur vs Oasis. It was extraordinary. I think Noel said this before, it was kind of the last big cultural thing in the UK before [mobile] phones.

“I did a media studies project on the battle between Blur and Oasis when I was a kid!”

When Chris asked the 41-year-old whether he was in the Blur or Oasis camp, he said: “I was in Oasis, because I was afraid to be beaten up. If you’d said you liked Blur, you’d have been beaten up. But I love them both, they are just fantastic. 

“All their songs now, particularly a lot of the B-sides for Oasis, you know that beautiful thing that music can do where it just instantly transports you back to a place? That you just go, ‘Oh wow’? You hear the Stereophonics, and then you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m on the bench waiting for the bus.’ They are real memory transporters, a really good song.” 

The Russell Howard Hour continues next Thursday, 16th September, at 10pm on Sky Max.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.