Russell Howard

Russell Howard wants to do more Gert Lush

Russell Howard is keen to bring us a follow up to his one-off BBC comedy A Gert Lush Christmas, but jokes he may struggle to book his increasingly popular sister Kerry Howard.

Russell Howard interview

Russell Howard on Good News, Boaty McBoatface and engaging young people in politics.

Russell Howard interview

Russell Howard talks fear of dying and the terrible idea to put BBC Three online.

Russell Howard: 'I have crippling low self-esteem'

"Like most comedians, I have crippling low self-esteem, so I always think that what I've just done is rubbish."

Russell Howard interview

Here, the 36-year-old comedian talks to TV Choice about on-stage encounters, Dinner Dates, meeting his heroes and filming with his mum...

Russell Howard on his worst ever heckle

Adorable funny man Russell Howard, 36, on always being a comedy nerd, his mother's magical parts and having a vibrator thrown at his head.

Pictures: Stars arrive for Michael McIntyre party

Rob Brydon, David Walliams and Russell Howard were amongst the guests at Michael McIntyre's star-studded birthday bash.

This week's best new comedy

Previews of Dane Baptiste, Russell Howard and Omid Djalili.

Richard Herring's ten best interviews

Lorcan Mullan celebrates 100 RHLSTP episodes.

The basic conceit of one-off comedy drama A Gert Lush Christmas was Meet the Parents as Howard's Dan introduced his girlfriend Lisa (Hannah Britland) to his oddball Bristolian family. They included his inappropriate mother Sue (Sophie Thompson), his foul-mouthed father Dave (Neil Morrissey), his drug-taking Uncle Tony (Greg Davies) and his excitable sister Julie (played by Russell's real life sister Kerry). The first twenty or so minutes of A Gert Lush Christmas pulled out almost every awkward family cliché including the womenfolk talking about marriage way too fast and later Dan and Lisa listening to his parents have sex. However, primarily due to the quality of the cast, these scenes were quite well presented and I found myself laughing several times. Where the piece fell down for me was the inevitable moment when Dan's family briefly caused he and Lisa's separation when Uncle Tony spiked his nephew's drink which somehow made him kiss one of his ex-girlfriends. The scenes in which Dan tried to win Lisa back were very weak indeed as was their eventual reconciliation which was framed around a child's magic trick. I do feel a lot of the blame for what went wrong aboutA Gert Lush Christmas can be attributed to Russell Howard's one-note performance as well as he and Williams' poorly paced script. It's quite evident that Howard can't act to save his life and throughout the hour I just felt I was watching the host of Good News visiting his eccentric family. Howard never once made Dan sympathetic and as a result I found myself feeling sorry for his rather sweet-natured if off-beat family. Although there were plus points, namely the turns given by Sophie Thompson and Kerry Howard, ultimately A Gert Lush Christmas fell flat for me which was a shame as it was one of this year's festive highlights that I was looking forward to the most.