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Review
The Russell Howard Hour review: from puppyish stand-up to spiky satire
“Did you see the bomb from the Parsons Green Tube train? ISIS called it The Mother Of Satan. It was made out of a bucket, some Christmas lights and a Lidl bag! That’s not The Mother Of Satan, that’s a really shit Secret Santa. It looked like someone had a nightmare on the Bake Off. The media were calling him The Bucket Bomber. That’s not scary, that’s something you order from KFC.”
Thus went the opening monologue on The Russell Howard Hour (Sky1), the boyish Bristolian comic’s new weekly take on global events and current affairs. It’s traditional at this point to use the term “a sideways look at the news”.
Howard’s surprisingly large fanbase might have tuned in expecting his usual brand of wide-eyed wit and observational whimsy. Instead, what they got was something altogether more politicised and hard-hitting.
There was an impassioned section about transgender rights and a ranty anti-Trump routine (although these are compulsory comedy fare nowadays). Howard also took aim at Theresa May, Boris Johnson (“a gabbling alpaca”) and Piers Morgan (a certain C-word).
His special guest was another curveball: Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, talking about the online abuse she receives. Howard politely asked permission to give Abbott a hug after her tough week.
“The personal abuse is so debilitating, demoralising and undermining," Abbott told him. "It’s meant to make you think that as a black woman, you shouldn’t be in the public space. There’s a lot more that Twitter and Facebook could do about it. Social media has unleashed stuff I thought we’d gone beyond. It’s the anonymity and the ease.”
Abbott joined in the Trump-bashing, noting about his ban on transgender people in the military: “Donald Trump is not in a position to call other people weird.” Cue cheers from the studio audience.
With his bouncy delivery, puppyish energy and laddish styling – he wore an All Saints polo, box-fresh trainers and walked on to a theme tune by bloke-rockers Kasabian – Howard is the Jamie Oliver of comedy.
His success tends to bewilder anyone over 35 but by stealth, he’s become one of our biggest stand-ups. He breaks box office records, embarks on worldwide mega-tours and has a huge online following. His BBC Three vehicle, Russell Howard’s Good News, was voted the channel’s best ever show but didn’t survive a transfer to BBC Two. He has now signed a two-year deal with Sky. This was the first fruits.
It wasn’t a million miles away from his Beeb series (even using the same newspaper chairs) but had a longer running time, padded out with vox pops, VTs and stand-up interludes – both from Howard himself and acts hand-picked from the comedy circuit.
Significantly, all his guests in this opener were women. As well as Abbott, Howard introduced poet Megan Beech (who delivered a Kate Tempest-esque verse in praise of “troll-slaying” Cambridge classicist Mary Beard), rising comic Lou Sanders (sent to Corby to find out if it really is the UK’s unhappiest town - the answer seemed to be yes) and set from Welsh stand-up Kiri Pritchard-Mclean (the weakest of the trio).
To crank up the cuteness factor, a “Playground Politics” segment saw a team of child correspondents offering their pint-sized perspective. Somebody had clearly been watching Gogglesprogs.
Overall, it was a treat to find Howard showing so much bite. With an all-female cast and confrontational material, he was clearly setting out his stall to be edgier than his good-natured reputation.
It didn’t always work and Howard’s focus occasionally faltered. He spelt defence wrongly, mistakenly thought that feminist activist Caroline Criado-Perez was an MP, and relied too much on screen-grabbed Tweets and endearing animal pics for easy laughs.
However, it’s not often you get such spiky satire on Sky1, let alone a feminist poem referencing Caligula, Minerva and Augustus’ dictums. For that, Howard and his Hour should be applauded.