Russell Howard’s Five Brilliant Things
Join our Patreon for two shows a week, ad-free listening, early access and much more... Follow this link and get involved! - patreon.com/RussellHoward Each week Russell sits down with fantastic guests to chat about their Brilliant Things; the items, places and people that make life worth living.
Episodes
January 6, 2026 • 61 mins
Superb comedian Bridget Christie is here. She’s won the Edinburgh Award, she’s been nominated for oodles of comedy prizes, she’s written and performed in two series of her own show ‘The Change’ for Channel 4 and now she sits down with us to reveal her Five Brilliant Things.
It’s as thoughtful and funny as you would imagine from a comic as good as Bridget, including why empathy is disappearing, why we underestimate water and dri...
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January 2, 2026 • 75 mins
From our December shows, here's a little taster of each episode so you can get a flavour of the things we got up to with our wonderful guests:
Doctor/Writer Adam Kay
Taskmaster star and stand-up Ania Magliano
Stand-up comedy legend Ross Noble
and one of the most fascinating people in Britain, Rory Sutherland.
If you hear anything you like, circle back and enjoy the whole episode - they are all there waiting for you to listen...
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December 30, 2025 • 68 mins
Marketing expert and thinker-outside-the-box, Rory Sutherland is here with his Five Brilliant Things and they all begin with the letter C: Consumerism, Contradictions, Cars, Commuter Towns, Cornbread and the Commonwealth.
You’ll notice that’s more than five things, which typifies this episode. The ideas and conversation flowing out of Rory and Russell was abundant and it’s one of the most densely packed interesting shows we’ve m...
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December 23, 2025 • 54 mins
Happy Christmas!
This week Russell looks back over all of the shows from 2025 and picks his favourite moments from 52 x 5 Brilliant Things (So…quick bit of maths…that’s…260 Brilliant Things).
We’ll be back in a week with a brand new show and loads of super-exciting guests in the new year.
On our Patreon show something a bit special this week - Russell and Dan sit down and talk about how they made the TV show Good News. For any...
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December 16, 2025 • 73 mins
One of Britain’s most mercurial and naturally talented stand-ups of all time, Ross Noble sits down with Russell to explain how he went from a school drop-out with a couple of circus skills to one of the greatest stand-ups Britain’s ever produced. He also goes into detail about Cuttlefish.
Ross is in the middle of his latest live tour, called ‘Cranium of Curiosities’. It’s a full show of brand-new stand-up and it is going to all...
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December 9, 2025 • 69 mins
Ania Magliano loves gossip, and she’s here to share some CHOICE cuts of the stuff. From Taskmaster, Stand-up Ania is in the studio and she’s running us through her favourite things which takes us on a journey through some unashamedly indulgent birthday parties, the perils of being bold with your hair and some fascinating chat about writing process and generating comedy ideas. Oh, and did I mention the excellent gossip?!
Ania is ...
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December 2, 2025 • 64 mins
Doctor, author, comedian, musician Adam Kay tells Russell about the things that he’s discovered that are brilliant. It’s a laugh-out-loud funny show that begins with a tale of conception, takes what it feels like to be spied on by Ben Wishaw, and by the end we are all getting acquainted with the inside of Adam’s nostrils.
As spoken about in the show, Adam has published his first novel that is a thriller with plenty of laughs an...
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November 28, 2025 • 47 mins
Hello, here's a round up of the best bits from the last month of shows, featuring the fantastic comic Kerry Godliman (she's so funny), wine expert Tom Gilbey with a great story about Iron Maiden, dictionary corner's Susie Dent and the American-Palestinian comic Mo Amer.
If you hear something you like you can double-back and take in the whole episode if you like!
Producer: Dan Atkinson
Line Producer: Daisy Knight
Exec Produc...
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November 25, 2025 • 57 mins
Palestinian-American stand-up sensation Mo Amer is here! He’s on a tour of Europe, he’s in the UK for a couple of days and he came into the studio to tell us all about his Five Brilliant Things and he did not disappoint.
Mo has an easy Texas charm coupled with seriously funny bones. His relationship between his American upbringing and Middle-Eastern heritage is fascinating and you can see that in the things he chose for the show:...
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November 18, 2025 • 63 mins
From Countdown's Dictionary Corner it’s Susie Dent!
Susie is here with her Five Brilliant Things and they are as fascinating and vocabulary-expanding as you might hope; but it’s not all words, Susie also tells us about her special relationship with a rock. Is it Dwayne Johnson? You’ll have to listen to the show to find out!
Alongside these revelations Russell and Susie luxuriate in some of the far corners of words and meanings; ...
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November 11, 2025 • 64 mins
Wine Wine Wine! Tom Gilbey is one of the UK’s top wine experts and he also talks about it like a normal person! This podcast takes us through the things that makes a wine buff happy (some of them are, and I don’t want to spoil things, wine-related).
Russell does a live wine-tasting of some rock and roll wine.
Tom takes us through his marathon that he ran while drinking wine every mile (!), the beauty of a good pen and there ar...
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November 4, 2025 • 66 mins
She’s the star of Whitstable Pearl, AfterLife and Taskmaster. She’s a phenomenal stand-up comedian and she’s Kerry Godliman, here to tell Russell about the things that make life worth living and it’s a nostalgic romp through Portobello Market, living off-grid in India and how to parent without being a beg.
Loads of fun, really great funny episode; this is a big ‘recommended’ sticker.
Kerry is touring her latest show right n...
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November 3, 2025 • 79 mins
It's all the best bits from October's shows! A tasting plate of the shows we've already broadcast this month and if you've been too busy to listen to the whole shows this is a way to get a morsel and who knows... maybe head back and listen to the whole thing if you like the sound of it.
Featuring Dom Joly, Sally Lindsay, Nick Mohammed, Horatio Gould and Pete Firman.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adcho...
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October 28, 2025 • 57 mins
You know Pete Firman. He’s charming. He’s northern and he pops up on your Instagram or TikTok with fantastic magic tricks, illusions and comedy. Pete is one of Britain’s most accomplished comedy magicians and he’s here with his Five Brilliant Things which take him from Chip Sauces, through Old Theatres and the whole thing wraps up with a love-letter to the very particular British art of CONKERS!
Lots of fun and he’s got (as Russ...
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October 21, 2025 • 66 mins
From the hit podcast Fin vs History, it’s the nascent comedy superstar Horatio Gould!
He’s here to explain why Men need to start doing more Business in saunas. He tells us just how violent and disgusting it should be to eat chicken. And everyone gets sidetracked in a discussion about a man who went into a cave and made sweet love to a chicken.
Horatio is performing the last extended run of his solo tour show ‘Return of the S...
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October 14, 2025 • 64 mins
Star of Celebrity Traitors, and Ted Lasso, and Slow Horses…Nick Mohammed is here revealing the five things that make him happiest.
What happened when he was asked to perform one-on-one for his hero Andrew Lloyd Webber (awkward!)? Who was the inspiration for his hit character Mr Swallow? And what invaluable tips did he get from Paul Daniels? That’s all in here and so much more. It’s a Nick Mohammed fan’s dream hour.
Oh, and if...
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October 7, 2025 • 66 mins
From Corrie, Phoenix Nights and the Madame Blanc Mysteries, Sally Lindsay is here with her Five Brilliant Things and they are belters.
It’s a romp through the majesty of Chas and Dave, some strong opinions about loudspeakers on public transport and taking wild train trips from England to Italy in the early 1980s.
As we talked about on the show, Sally stars in and wrote the Madame Blanc Mysteries and you can find that paragon o...
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September 30, 2025 • 64 mins
Which famous author does Dom Joly feel he may have to kill in order to get his perfect job?
And why is he compelled to jump off every high perch that he comes across?
And why was he caught in the bathroom of a High Court Judge semi-clothed?
The answers are all in this fabulous podcast, where Dom Joly selects the Five Things that make his life most exciting - and it is an exciting life. The show takes us across the globe, throu...
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September 26, 2025 • 81 mins
A bumper month of truly excellent shows! This podcast contains the best bits of each of our September shows so there's no new content (unless you include some links and a little bit of chat about Beef Rendang).
But here you can enjoy a brief bit of:
Irish stand-up powerhouse Ardal O'Hanlon!
Podcaster and actor Georgia Tennant!
US comedy megastar Taylor Tomlinson!
From Taskmaster - the brilliant comedian Phil Ellis!
And Stacey...
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September 23, 2025 • 68 mins
How did Joanna Page nearly cock up her Gavin and Stacey audition? How did she end up following Kenneth Branagh around in secret?
The stories, the stories! This delightful episode with Gavin and Stacey’s Joanna Page is a delight from cover to cover (yeah yeah, podcast/book/bad analogy get lost).
Her Brilliant Things include her unhinged dog Daisy (the stories!), her Dad’s Prawn Salad and her refuge, a wonderful caravan. It’s a...
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