Russell Howard, 44, has addressed rumours that he’s retired from TV for good – and made it clear that it was all just a misunderstanding.
Last week, reports emerged that the comedian was stepping back from television to focus solely on standup and his podcasts – Five Brilliant Things and the football-themed GoalLess. Speaking on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X on January 14, Russell explained that his meaning had been lost in translation, and that he was simply being picky about which TV work he’d take on.
“Hey, I’ve heard you’ve recently retired from television,” host Chris prompted, with Russell initially joking along with him. He then explained: “Yeah, I basically said that I’m really enjoying doing stand-up and my podcast.”
Russell then described how the types of shows he was interested in weren’t on TV at the moment, and he was biding his time for the right work. “This country is pretty strange – we had an election, and we didn’t have any topical comedy shows on TV,” he said.
“You just don’t really have them anymore. So, I don’t want to do TV for the sake of it and I’d rather do stand-up. That’s all I said, and suddenly, ‘Howard quits!’ Bizarre.”
Rumours first emerged that Russell was stepping back from TV after he spoke on the Have a Word podcast, and said: “I don’t do TV anymore, I just do stand-up and my podcast. I was all over the world and it was just fun. TV is fun but it’s not as fun.
“Writing a book I couldn’t do because I don’t want to sit and entertain myself but doing stand-up is what I love doing. It’s not entertainment for committee, it’s your dictatorship. The audience are like this brilliant jury that let you know through laughter whether it works or not.”
On Chris Moyles’ podcast today, the host jokingly quipped that Howard’s wife wouldn’t be happy if he “gave up lucrative television” so soon after they welcomed a child. Russell became a father for the first time last year after welcoming a son with his wife, doctor Cerys Morgan. Speaking during an interview in August, Russell revealed his son had been born three months earlier and that he and Cerys had moved to Buckinghamshire from London to start a new chapter as a family.
Speaking to The Times about his new life as a dad, he admitted: “Six months ago my evenings would have been spent getting ready to go out and perform in front of a thousand people, but now evenings find me sitting on the sofa watching TV with my son on my chest. I’m tired a lot.
“It’s funny, when you become a parent everybody compliments you on your baby, but they will freely turn to you and say that you look like s**t, that your face should be on a government watch list or something. So I try to get sleep whenever I can. Right now, I need it.”
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