Russell Kane

Britain Unzipped, with Greg James and Russell Kane, had me wondering whether my wife had slipped an acid tab into my nightcap. Because if I wasn't hallucinating then we must conclude the bods at BBC3 are indeed in the process of remaking The Word and trying to pass it off as ground-breaking TV.

I wish I could fully explain Britain Unzipped's format, but all I can really tell you is that someone has used your licence fee to commission a survey with the sole intention of using the results to create an hour of student pranks and celebrity-based smut. And the continuity announcer's jolly pre-show boast of 'Prepare to be gobsmacked' could yet turn out be the TV understatement of the year.

Don't get me wrong. In free-thinking modern Britain there should be a place for TV delights such as Holly Willoughby inspecting a young man's bed sheet for stains, a young girl watching her mother parading around their kitchen naked and a guy being forced to eat a burger made of dog food.

But that place should always be late-night ITV2. Not 9pm on a public service channel whose agreed remit is 'to bring younger audiences to high-quality public service broadcasting through a mixed-genre schedule of innovative UK content featuring new UK talent'.

Now, if anyone at BBC3 can explain exactly where Holly Willoughby swearing like a fishwife and a studio audience being offered a prize of beer sits in that remit I'm all ears. If they cannot then I fear they might have to employ someone to conduct a nationwide poll containing just one simple question. "BBC3 - waste of your money or not?"

Russell Kane's debut novel is stand-up's sweet revenge

Comedian Russell Kane tells Dominic Cavendish about his scathing debut novel The Humorist.

In an alternative social survey, comedian Russell Kane and Radio 1 DJ Greg James attempt to get to the heart of what young Britons think. Their new six-part series mixes the serious with the light-hearted, with questions ranging from whether wealth affects the number of sexual partners you have, to how much money it would take for you to agree to have a little toe chopped off.

New BBC3 series, probably the work of people who believe "wacky", "zany" and even "madcap" are compliments. Radio 1's Greg James and comedian Russell Kane will spend six weeks riffing on the findings of an "alternative social census" of the UK, asking such key questions as how much money people would want to have a toe chopped off, and where in the country people are most likely to have slept with a friend's partner. Likely to leave the Daily Mail uncertain whether to damn it as a squandering of licence fees, or plunder it for stories.

Interview: Russell Kane, comedian

After Russell Kane performed as Beyoncé on Let's Dance For... Comic Relief last year, audiences for his stand-up shows began demanding a repeat of the Crazy In Love routine. "People were coming to see me who'd never heard me speak a word," he recalls. "So they were understandably disappointed when I come out dressed as a... I won't say 'man'. That's a bit strong. As a male."

Russell Kane fronts new quiz show

Comic Russell Kane is fronting a new show which asks people a string of bizarre questions - such as how much would you need to be paid to chop off your toe?

Russell Kane interview: 'I'm such a loser...'

Russell Kane's plans for a two-year "shagathon" failed just one month - and four girls - in.

The nostalgic can wallow in plenty of retro-fare this Christmas, from old Morecambe and Wise specials, by way of Tommy Cooper repeats and this splendid profile of the poker-faced comedian who was still selling vacuum cleaners at the age of 38 when, in 1967, he had one last throw of the dice and entered Opportunity Knocks. Dawson's deadpan humour is appreciated here by John Cleese, Robert Webb ("it's quite easy to play the piano badly and not be funny") and Russell Kane ("some of us younger people did muddle him up with John Prescott"). Touchingly, Dawson stopped cracking mother-in-law jokes when his wife's mother died.

Norton has opted for a "best of British" line-up tonight, with thesp and director Kenneth Branagh in to discuss the prosthetic chin he wore to play Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn, comedian Russell Kane to push his DVD of innocuous Essex jokes, and actor Matt Smith to, hopefully, reveal all about the Doctor Who Christmas special.