After 19 years of television fame, Russell Howard has stepped down from the screen.
The 44-year-old funnyman declared: "I don't do TV anymore, I just do stand-up and my podcast."
Howard, renowned for his BBC show 'Good News' which aired from 2009 to 2015, and 'The Russell Howard Hour' on Sky that started in 2017, has decided to switch his focus to his two podcasts: 'Five Brilliant Things', and the football-themed 'GoalLess'.
His last TV gig was Channel 4's 'Big Fat Quiz of Telly' back in August.
Opening up on the 'Have A Word' podcast, Russell shared his reasons for leaving TV behind: "I was all over the world and it was just fun. TV is fun but it's not as fun [as stand-up].
"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."
Additionally, Howard has had a Netflix special and revealed personal family experiences, including the touching account of sharing a bed with his epileptic brother, Daniel, following a severe seizure that instilled fears of dying in sleep, reports the Mirror.
In a candid reflection on a terrifying episode from their past, Russell and his brother Daniel opened up about the frightening accident that triggered Daniel's epilepsy.
The comedian poignantly described how in the aftermath of a severe epileptic episode at age 18, Daniel would sleep next to him, with their legs touching as a sort of early alert system in case another fit occurred.
He shared at the time: "When I was 18, my brother had a really bad epileptic fit. We found him on the floor. He was blue. We were terrified."
He continued: "We thought he was gonna die. We got into the hospital and he was OK. Two days later, he came back full of bravado."
Relating the events of that night, Russell said: "But later that night he knocked on the door and said 'is it alright if I sleep with you? It's boring going to bed, innit?'
He put his leg on me. OK, fine. He's had a tough couple of days. I can live with that..." He added: "This went on for a year, this leg on me. It was only recently that I said to Daniel, 'What was that about?'."
With heartfelt candour, he recounted Daniel's sobering explanation: "And he said, 'Y'know, I was afraid to go to sleep in case I woke up dead. Didn't want to burden you with that. So I just slept with my leg there. I thought if I started shaking you would wake up and I would be all right'."
The family also revisits the distressing incident that happened when Daniel was just 10 years old, which led to his condition – a fall from his bike that seemingly induced his epilepsy – and a harrowing seizure four years later that made the family fear for his life.
Russell, hailing from Bristol, recounted the fateful day, saying: "Daniel has epilepsy and what's awful about it is that I know when it happened because we were riding our bikes down a hill, and a battery fell out of my light on the back of my bike and sort of flicked up.
"And I looked around and Daniel went over the battery, smacked his head and was kind of on the floor. This was before the days of helmets and all that kind of stuff."
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For a year or so, Daniel suffered headaches and then began to have fits, culminating in one aged 14 when the family feared the worst would happen.
Russell said: "He's upstairs with [sister] Kerry and she was calling me, and my brother was like, you know, he started fitting. Dad was crying. It was the only time I have seen him cry, it was absolutely horrific."
Daniel survived and, showing that comedy runs in the family, even broke wind when he regained consciousness, causing the rest of the Howard clan to burst out laughing.
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