More good news for Russell Howard

BBC Three have commissioned two new series of Russell Howard's Good News, the popular comedian's topical standup show interspersed with funny media clips. The show peaked with 900,000 viewers, and its total weekly audience (when BBC iPlayer streaming and repeats are factored in) inflate that to 2.5 million. Series 2 will arrive on screens next month and series 3 later this year.

I'm glad it's back, as the first series was a better outlet for Howard's skills than Mock The Week has been, it was good for a giggle, and it improved as it went along. The only things I'd change would be the runtime (an hour is far too long for topical news comedy), and it perhaps wasn't wise to put guest comedians on for the last segment, because if you didn't like the performer you could happily switch over because the show was essentially over by that point. That said, you could argue it was only ever worth tuning in for the last 10-minutes, if you're not a fan of Howard's grinning student-friendly shtick.