The Russell Howard Show
Encyclopedia
The Russell Howard and Jon Richardson Show was a UK radio show on digital station BBC 6 Music
that aired from 10.00am - 1.00pm on Sundays. It was presented by comedians Russell Howard
and Jon Richardson
. It follows the two from when they shared a flat, to when Jon purchased a house and moved out.
The two began hosting the show on 12 November 2006, taking over the slot vacated by comedian Russell Brand
when he moved to Radio 2 on Saturday nights. Originally the show also featured the presenters' friend and fellow comedian Sam Thomas, who left in early 2007, occasionally appearing thereafter in recorded skits.
The show was replaced by The Jon Richardson Show
, which ended on 7 March 2010.
Another popular feature on the show was 'Bored Games' which in which listeners texted or e-mailed in their favorite ways of alleviating boredom. Games included 'Bum', in which participants pushed two beds together and proceeded to lie between them, slowly falling through the gap to the floor underneath.
'Botwatch' was a series of sketches that developed from a small aspect of the shows broadcast when Russell was in Australia. Pretending that he was joined by the 'Russbot 3000' each week to compensate for Russell's absence, Jon would play in voice clips that Russell had previously recorded, and when Russell returned he decided to pretend he had his own robot version of Jon, and in turn these developed into the 'Botwatch' sketches, whereby Russell and Jon would play exaggerated robot versions of each other.
A longer running item was 'The News Quiz', which originally featured members of the public competing by answering questions over the phone about topical news items. This was halted however, due to the BBC's review of competitions and listener based features in 2007, and was then instead played by the two presenters competing against each other, with the loser having a forfeit chosen by the listeners bestowed upon them - examples being the usually casually dressed Russell having to wear a suit every day for week, and Jon having to dress as a female flight attendant during one show. The forfeit then became a challenge to get a particular movie quote, suggested by the listeners, unwittingly read out on a local radio show, sending the messages in under the guise of Sue the retired lesbian from Clifton (Russell) or Nina, a post-op transsexual from Worcester (Jon). Examples include getting "I have many leather-bound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany", a quote from Anchorman, and "Everybody be cool, this is a robbery!", a quote from Pulp Fiction read out in some form. The feature was ended with a three week 'Ultimate News Quiz Championship' where Russell & Jon would decide who was better at the quiz. The person who won the quiz most over the three weeks would become the champion and receive the Ultimate News Quiz Championship Cup as supplied by Jon. Jon subsequently won 2 - 1 and became Ultimate News Quiz Champion and received the cup that he had made.
, and curiously the Dyson Airblade
hand dryer. Since then, Mark Lawrenson has actually become involved with the show himself, firstly recording the feature 'Lawro's Top 3', in which the ex-footballer stated his own top three choices in a particular category e.g. sandwich fillings, and then Russell and Jon guessed in which order he rated them, and later in a more surreal sketch revolving around a new fantasy book that he has supposedly written named Lawro and the Warlocks of Doom. The presenters also share a hatred of 5Live presenter Stephen Nolan.
from musical act Phats & Small
waging a campaign against a fish & chip shop. Matt Forde then began to tackle political issues such as capital punishment, usually resulting in humorous outcomes and much material for Jon and Russell to satirise. Matt Forde now debates against a listener who is challenged to 'a squabble with the wobble'. The topics of the debates are chosen by Russell and the debates are judged and scored by Jon. However, since a guest swore twice on air this feature has contained a debate against Russell or guests who have been in the studio such as Sam Thomas who used to be a presenter on the show. Since Russell's departure "Fordie" has become an even more integral part of the show and always joins Jon in the studio for a significant part of the show. Lately he was given a number of challenges, the most recent of which ("Get Fordie Fit") has involved Matt recalling his dieting week. He has successfully managed to lose weight consistently despite a week of celebration that involved the US election, Fordie's birthday and the unveiling of a new statue of Brian Clough
, the former manager of Fordie's beloved Nottingham Forest FC. Fordie later revealed he had surprisingly managed to lose weight that week by drinking lager instead of his favoured cider, a tip he received from a dietician several weeks previously. Thanks to the recent dieting, he has lowered his BMI so that he is no longer obese, albeit via careful time planning, rather than cutting down food. He "celebrated" his new found health with a sausage sandwich, which he later admitted was going to be consumed earlier on in the day. Sadly on Sunday 23 November it was revealed that Fordie weighed in at 100 kg on the dot, as proclaimed by producer Adam Hudson after he had moved in for an agonising second look. Despite several calibrations of the scales Matt Forde was tragically resentenced to the "obese" weight category by just a matter of molecules. Without Russell, many listeners see Matt Forde as an essential part of the show as he makes the show more upbeat. This is a role Russell Howard used to play. With Matt Forde's childish humour the show has managed to go on without Russell.
and Alan Carr
, who Jon had toured with earlier in the year.
which ended in early March 2010 . Jon and Russell are believed to have since fallen out and are no longer friends. However on The Jon Richardson Show
of 12 July 2009, Jon acknowledge the receiving of a congratulatory email from a Sue in Clifton, in regards to him finally acquiring a Wheelie Bin from Swindon borough Council. Sue in Clifton is a well known pseudonym that Howard used whilst on the show in a section where he would send texts to other stations during the week, in the hope of having the presenter read them out (Jon similarly did this under the moniker of Nina in Worcester). This perhaps suggests that any rumours of a falling out are purely fictional.
and Canada
.
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
that aired from 10.00am - 1.00pm on Sundays. It was presented by comedians Russell Howard
Russell Howard
Russell Joseph Howard is an English comedian best known for his TV show Russell Howard's Good News and his appearances on the topical panel TV show Mock The Week...
and Jon Richardson
Jon Richardson (entertainer)
Jon Joel Richardson is a British comedian.Jon co-hosted a Sunday morning radio show on BBC 6 Music with fellow comedian and friend Russell Howard, and continued to present the show himself after Howard left, until 7 March 2010...
. It follows the two from when they shared a flat, to when Jon purchased a house and moved out.
The two began hosting the show on 12 November 2006, taking over the slot vacated by comedian Russell Brand
Russell Brand
Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...
when he moved to Radio 2 on Saturday nights. Originally the show also featured the presenters' friend and fellow comedian Sam Thomas, who left in early 2007, occasionally appearing thereafter in recorded skits.
The show was replaced by The Jon Richardson Show
The Jon Richardson Show
The Jon Richardson Show was a weekly radio show on BBC 6 Music, which was created due to the departure of Russell Howard from The Russell Howard Show, which Jon Richardson co-hosted with Russell. The show was broadcast on Sundays 10am - 1pm...
, which ended on 7 March 2010.
Style
Both coming from a stand-up background, with a strong slant towards improvisational comedy, the style of the show was light, with only the occasional nod toward more serious issues. The pair both had little radio experience beforehand which brought a relaxed and unprofessional style to the show which the listeners enjoyed. The two presenters have been friends for years before coming to the show, and this is evident as the - occasionally spiky - but generally good-natured back-and-forth exchanges on a range of subjects frequently result in a humorous outcome. Listeners have also noted the excellent chemistry between the pair, which often involves mimicking each others voices. For example, Russell would mock Jon's Lancashire accent and use his characteristics to create a more extreme version of Jon. In return, Jon would depict Russell as a very simple West Country man.Features
Regular features on the show have included 'Am I Normal?', in which listeners were invited to relate their own unusual habits and personal quirks, the idea of which was to determine if these quirks were socially acceptable ('normal') or not, and 'Jon's 100% Belter', whereby Jon got to play a track of his choice. Shorter running features included 'Time Travel', where listeners were invited to choose which period of history (or the future) they'd like to travel to and why, and the 'Mama Link', which featured Russell and Jon's mums performing a short sketch together - written by Russell and Jon - in which they both adopted an urban 'street' patois while discussing some fictional incident that one of them had been involved in that week.Another popular feature on the show was 'Bored Games' which in which listeners texted or e-mailed in their favorite ways of alleviating boredom. Games included 'Bum', in which participants pushed two beds together and proceeded to lie between them, slowly falling through the gap to the floor underneath.
'Botwatch' was a series of sketches that developed from a small aspect of the shows broadcast when Russell was in Australia. Pretending that he was joined by the 'Russbot 3000' each week to compensate for Russell's absence, Jon would play in voice clips that Russell had previously recorded, and when Russell returned he decided to pretend he had his own robot version of Jon, and in turn these developed into the 'Botwatch' sketches, whereby Russell and Jon would play exaggerated robot versions of each other.
A longer running item was 'The News Quiz', which originally featured members of the public competing by answering questions over the phone about topical news items. This was halted however, due to the BBC's review of competitions and listener based features in 2007, and was then instead played by the two presenters competing against each other, with the loser having a forfeit chosen by the listeners bestowed upon them - examples being the usually casually dressed Russell having to wear a suit every day for week, and Jon having to dress as a female flight attendant during one show. The forfeit then became a challenge to get a particular movie quote, suggested by the listeners, unwittingly read out on a local radio show, sending the messages in under the guise of Sue the retired lesbian from Clifton (Russell) or Nina, a post-op transsexual from Worcester (Jon). Examples include getting "I have many leather-bound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany", a quote from Anchorman, and "Everybody be cool, this is a robbery!", a quote from Pulp Fiction read out in some form. The feature was ended with a three week 'Ultimate News Quiz Championship' where Russell & Jon would decide who was better at the quiz. The person who won the quiz most over the three weeks would become the champion and receive the Ultimate News Quiz Championship Cup as supplied by Jon. Jon subsequently won 2 - 1 and became Ultimate News Quiz Champion and received the cup that he had made.
Recurring themes
There were a number of recurring motifs in the show, namely an apparent obsession with football pundit Mark LawrensonMark Lawrenson
Mark Thomas Lawrenson is a former professional football player, a defender in the Liverpool and Irish football teams of the 1980s; he since became a radio, television and internet pundit for the BBC and Today FM. He was born in England, but played for the Republic of Ireland because his...
, and curiously the Dyson Airblade
Dyson Airblade
The Dyson Airblade is a model of electric hand dryer made by the Wiltshire, UK based company Dyson. It was introduced in the UK in 2006 and in the United States in latter part of 2007. Instead of using a wide jet of heated air, it uses a layer of unheated air traveling at around 400 miles per hour...
hand dryer. Since then, Mark Lawrenson has actually become involved with the show himself, firstly recording the feature 'Lawro's Top 3', in which the ex-footballer stated his own top three choices in a particular category e.g. sandwich fillings, and then Russell and Jon guessed in which order he rated them, and later in a more surreal sketch revolving around a new fantasy book that he has supposedly written named Lawro and the Warlocks of Doom. The presenters also share a hatred of 5Live presenter Stephen Nolan.
Matt Forde
In 2008 Russell and Jon's friend and fellow comedian Matt Forde became a regular contributor to the show. Usually over the phone, but occasionally appearing in the studio in person, he initially brought us 'Fordie's Animal Magic', in which Forde related facts about the animal kingdom, but subsequently turned into a surreal self-penned monologue featuring a minor celebrity and an animal. As such, the animal facts were dropped altogether and this feature became 'Fordie's Rumour Mill', an example of which being Ben OfoeduBen Ofoedu
Ben Ofoedu , is a Nigerian/British singer-songwriter, most famous for being the former lead singer of the band Phats and Small.-Music career:...
from musical act Phats & Small
Phats & Small
Phats & Small are a dance music duo from the UK. The duo consists of Jason "Phats" Hayward and Russell Small, they are best known for their 1998 hit "Turn Around"-Career:...
waging a campaign against a fish & chip shop. Matt Forde then began to tackle political issues such as capital punishment, usually resulting in humorous outcomes and much material for Jon and Russell to satirise. Matt Forde now debates against a listener who is challenged to 'a squabble with the wobble'. The topics of the debates are chosen by Russell and the debates are judged and scored by Jon. However, since a guest swore twice on air this feature has contained a debate against Russell or guests who have been in the studio such as Sam Thomas who used to be a presenter on the show. Since Russell's departure "Fordie" has become an even more integral part of the show and always joins Jon in the studio for a significant part of the show. Lately he was given a number of challenges, the most recent of which ("Get Fordie Fit") has involved Matt recalling his dieting week. He has successfully managed to lose weight consistently despite a week of celebration that involved the US election, Fordie's birthday and the unveiling of a new statue of Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...
, the former manager of Fordie's beloved Nottingham Forest FC. Fordie later revealed he had surprisingly managed to lose weight that week by drinking lager instead of his favoured cider, a tip he received from a dietician several weeks previously. Thanks to the recent dieting, he has lowered his BMI so that he is no longer obese, albeit via careful time planning, rather than cutting down food. He "celebrated" his new found health with a sausage sandwich, which he later admitted was going to be consumed earlier on in the day. Sadly on Sunday 23 November it was revealed that Fordie weighed in at 100 kg on the dot, as proclaimed by producer Adam Hudson after he had moved in for an agonising second look. Despite several calibrations of the scales Matt Forde was tragically resentenced to the "obese" weight category by just a matter of molecules. Without Russell, many listeners see Matt Forde as an essential part of the show as he makes the show more upbeat. This is a role Russell Howard used to play. With Matt Forde's childish humour the show has managed to go on without Russell.
Russell in Australia
Between 1 April 2007 and 13 May 2007 Russell Howard did not appear on the show as he was on tour in Australia, appearing at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and touring comedy clubs in the country. During this period Jon Richardson hosted the show with friends and comedians as standing in as co-hosts including Mark Olver, Matt Forde, John Robins, Michael McIntyreMichael McIntyre
Michael Hazen James McIntyre is an English stand-up comedian. He is well known for appearing at many British stand-up comedy events and for several roles on television stand-up programmes such as Live at the Apollo and his own show, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow...
and Alan Carr
Alan Carr
Alan Carr is an English comedian and television personality. Born in Weymouth, he was raised in Northampton before moving to Manchester during his early 20's....
, who Jon had toured with earlier in the year.
Russell deciding to leave the show
On the show broadcast on 6 January 2008 Russell seemed to express plans to quit presenting the show within a fortnight, intending to leave Jon to host by himself, likely appearing with one or more of the 'guest presenters' that had appeared during Russell's absence in Australia. After a discussion with bosses at the station, it was stated that he would continue on the show until April 2008. On 13 July 2008 he said at the end of the podcast that the next show would "be his last." However, he later stated in an e-mail that went out to those on his mailing list that "this Sunday is going to be my last BBC 6 Music show for a bit. I am taking a break whilst I do Mock The Week and then my new stand-up tour, but I’ll be back soon," suggesting that he will return, however this turned out to be false. The show then changed to The Jon Richardson ShowThe Jon Richardson Show
The Jon Richardson Show was a weekly radio show on BBC 6 Music, which was created due to the departure of Russell Howard from The Russell Howard Show, which Jon Richardson co-hosted with Russell. The show was broadcast on Sundays 10am - 1pm...
which ended in early March 2010 . Jon and Russell are believed to have since fallen out and are no longer friends. However on The Jon Richardson Show
The Jon Richardson Show
The Jon Richardson Show was a weekly radio show on BBC 6 Music, which was created due to the departure of Russell Howard from The Russell Howard Show, which Jon Richardson co-hosted with Russell. The show was broadcast on Sundays 10am - 1pm...
of 12 July 2009, Jon acknowledge the receiving of a congratulatory email from a Sue in Clifton, in regards to him finally acquiring a Wheelie Bin from Swindon borough Council. Sue in Clifton is a well known pseudonym that Howard used whilst on the show in a section where he would send texts to other stations during the week, in the hope of having the presenter read them out (Jon similarly did this under the moniker of Nina in Worcester). This perhaps suggests that any rumours of a falling out are purely fictional.
Catchphrases
The phrase 'love to your mothers' has become popular on the show, particularly as a way to end correspondence. It seems to be starting to bleed out into the public conscience, in a small way, as emails and texts have used the phrase on other radio shows, such as Russell Brand's Radio 2 show. Jon pointed this out on the show. Star of the show Matt Forde has his own catchphrase "Hello Britain" which he uses as a greeting to his fellow Britons for whom he works tirelessly. There were suggestions that Fordie was phasing his catchphrase out after it had been stolen by several callers to radio shows in both BritainUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
External links
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/russell_howard/
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/jon_richardson/