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From The Guardian:

Russell Brand is in talks with the BBC about presenting his first TV programme, a film about addiction, for the broadcaster since being forced out over a prank phone calls row in 2008.

The comedian – eager, it would appear, to mend fences after the scandal – has said he would waive any fee to forestall criticism of the proposed BBC3 programme.

Discussions are continuing, as the corporation weighs the sensitivities, but it is thought the film will explore the issue of addiction in a similar way to how Stephen Fry tackled depression for BBC2 in 2006.

Last year, after the death of his friend and fellow addict Amy Winehouse, Brand paid tribute to her, saying they “shared an affliction, the disease of addiction”.

Brand left the BBC in 2008 following a row over a prank phone call he and Jonathan Ross made to the actor Andrew Sachs about Sachs’s granddaughter. Since then Brand has gone on to appear in a number of Hollywood films.

He has returned to broadcasting in the UK – in 2009 he co-hosted a sports show with Noel Gallagher on TalkSport, and in 2010 appeared as a guest on Dermot O’Leary’s BBC Radio 2 show – but has not fronted a TV programme since leaving. His only recent appearance on BBC screens has been in BBC4 reruns of his BBC2 documentary, On the Road.

A BBC spokesman said: “We are working with Russell on a programme about addiction in the UK but it’s currently only in its early stages.”

Brand, who has spent time in rehab, has often called for addicts to be treated as “sick people in need of care”. He also said: “We need to review the way society treats addicts … we need to look at the way our government funds rehabilitation. It is cheaper to rehabilitate an addict than to send them to prison, so criminalisation doesn’t even make economic sense.”

From BBC News Magazine:

Shakespeare loved a fool and not just on 1 April. He used them in most of his well-known plays, but who would their equivalents be today?

It was never about bright clothes, eccentric hats and slippers with bells on them. Shakespeare’s fools were the stand-ups of their day and liked to expose the vain, mock the pompous and deliver a few home truths – however uncomfortable that might be for those on the receiving end.

“Shakespearean fools, like stand-ups today, had a licence to say almost anything,” says Dr Oliver Double, who teaches drama at the University of Kent and specialises in comedy. “It was an exalted position.”

…So, smart and articulate or stupid and foolish, who are the closest modern equivalents of Shakespeare’s fools and comic characters?

Full article here.

Part 1:

(Parts 2-7 here.)

Full episode will air tomorrow night on BBC 2, but for now here are two clips of Russell on Nevermind the Buzzcocks.

(Second Clip)

You write books, do stand-up comedy, and act in films. Which do you prefer?

Stand-up. I love writing, but I’m not very disciplined and I find it difficult to do something where the gratification is so obviously delayed. No one’s clapping and laughing at a book.

What’s going on in your mind onstage?

There is a staccato series of interconnected voices — sometimes it feels like I’m in a seizure of ideas, a collision of voices.

Are there limits to what you will joke about?

I think as long as you remain funny, you can say anything.

Read more »

Short BBC interview from the Despicable Me premiere in which Russell talks about what his future plans are.

In case you missed it, the BBC has an extended version of Russell’s Newsnight interview online here.

After the initial rumors that Russell would be a guest on Jonathan Ross’s final episode of his Friday night chat show, it seemed that the plan was nixed by skittish BBC execs who feared controversy.

However, today The Daily Mail reports, in an article about Russ & Jonathan’s attendance at the pre-Wimbledon party:

Earlier in the day, Ross had pre-recorded an interview with Brand for his BBC1 chat show, Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, where it’s understood the pair spoke about the fateful broadcast on Brand’s show in October 2008 for the first time.

So I guess we’re still going to see the pair reunited on Wossy’s show – ‘citin’!

EDIT: According to Jonathan on Twitter, it’s not true. Sigh. Sorry for getting people’s hopes up!

Russ was on Dermot O’Leary’s Radio 2 show today.

Click here to listen to the broadcast (Russell is at about 38 minutes in).

See below for a transcript of the interview.

Read more »

According to the Guardian, Russell will be back on BBC Radio 2.

He will be a guest on Dermot O’Leary‘s afternoon show, which is streamed live here.  It airs from 1500-1800 (3 pm – 6 pm) on Saturdays. (That’s 3 pm UK time, so it’s 10 am Eastern/7 am Pacific for US people.)

The Radio 2 website doesn’t list Russell as an upcoming guest yet but says that the show will be live from LA this weekend.

UPDATE: I had previously posted that Russell would be on this weekend’s show (Feb 27). However, the Guardian article does not specify a date, and it’s been mentioned on Twitter that Russell’s appearance will be March 13 (but no source was cited). I will post the date when I find a definitive source for this information.