It has been confirmed that Russell Howard will return to BBC2 on October 22 with a new series of Russell Howard's Good News. Having reached 3 million viewers a week and regularly been the most watched show on iPlayer, the award-winning show makes a welcome and highly anticipated return with a new nine-part run. 

Now a global phenomenon with a YouTube channel launched in 2014 - which allowed fans around the world to watch full episodes of the show (without piracy) in countries where the show wasn’t already being broadcast - it has seen over 11 million views and been watched in 180 countries (even finding viewers in North Korea and Vatican City).  Episodes of Russell Howard’s Good News have even been subtitled and uploaded to Chinese video site AcFun, where the show has also been watched over 4 million times. 

In this new series, Howard will once again offer his take on the week’s global headlines and bizarre news stories. Sifting through over 60 international news channels, 140 newspapers from around the world and over a thousand news clips, no stone is left unturned in his pursuit of the weird and wonderful stories that have been dominating the press and TV news. 

Howard will also be making his first foray into acting on BBC2 later this year appearing in the feature length special, A Gert Lush Christmas, which he also co-wrote. The seasonal comedy drama also stars his sister Kerry Howard, Greg Davies, Neil Morrissey and Sophie Thompson.