Russell Brand

At least Channel 4 still loves Russell Brand. The comedian, who quit the BBC yesterday over his 'prank' calls to actor Andrew Sachs, opens his new C4 series of eccentric rants with the subject of pets. It's a rich topic which allows him to weave together gleefully dirty stories about our unnaturally intense relationships with animals. Showing he's not entirely a reformed character, Brand shares a distressing but amusing tale of a woman who had an affair with her dog. Irreverent, witty and packed with imagination, Ponderland shows how good Brand is when he reins in his most childish excesses.

Lanky comedian Russell Brand performs a stand-up show which was filmed in London in 2006. His quirky and foul-mouthed observational comedy isn't always successful, but it's engaging enough to stop you spending the entire programme thinking how satisfying it would be if you could give his alarming bush of hair a good run through with a comb.

I'll declare an interest and reveal that I am a fan of ubiquitous, outrageous, kohl-eyed Russell Brand, which some people my age apparently find strange. But beneath the back-combed hair lies a smart if unconventional mind. Russell Brand's Ponderland, showing each night this week, combines reminiscences on various topics with archive and newly-filmed segments, plus phone calls to supposedly 'unsuspecting' targets. Last night's opener was about the fears and confusions of childhood and the phone target Russell's dad Ron, who was called upon to reflect on the difference in colour between boys' and men's willies. Well, Brand has never been known for holding back, though I sensed a slightly less wild Brand than hitherto. There were even some grains of common sense amid the hilarity, the f-words and the 'awright' accent.

Radio Head: Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation

Rowland Rivron, Sandi Toksvig, Mark Steel, Mark Thomas, Jo Brand, Graham Fellowes, Russell Brand . . . the list of modern comedians that divides the nation is a surprisingly lengthy one. And it will be only part of the listening public that will be rearranging its life to be in front of the wireless when the latest series of the sociopolitical lecture Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation kicks off next Tuesday (Radio 4, 6.30pm).