After being invited to perform in Australia and New Zealand, Russell Howard takes a trip to explore these distant lands where Covid has been kerbed in his brand new three part series, premiering on Sky and streaming service NOW on 31st May at 9pm. All three episodes will be available on demand.
Following two weeks in quarantine to gain access, Russell travels the length and breadth of New Zealand, throwing himself headfirst into everything from Manu divebombing to championship sheep shearing, underwater driving to Mauri hot pool cooking. He’ll meet legendary kiwi Sam Neill, famous first-man Clarke Gayford, comedian Urzila Carlson and the wonderful old age woodworkers of Coffin Club.
Then Russell heads across the sea to Australia, where he cooks shrimps on the barbie with Tim Minchin, meets real life mermaids and gets up close and personal with Koala’s in the care of Robert Irwin, son of the Aussie zoo legend Steve Irwin. He also faces his fears up close and personal with sharks and races toilets in an Aussie pub tradition.
In each location Russell notices the subtle and delightful eccentricities of each country and presents them back through his stand-up performances across the land. Experiencing the unique local humour (and heckling) of the locals first-hand and revelling in our similarities and differences.
Whilst filming the travelogue, Russell became the first international comedian to perform in New Zealand and Australia since the global lockdown. Following the Australasian legs and a sold-out and critically-acclaimed UK arena run in Autumn 2019 for his world tour Respite, Russell is set to perform the second UK leg, including 5 Hammersmith Apollo and 7 hometown venue Bristol Hippodrome shows, from 22nd June to the 29th August 2021. Respite will in total take Russell to 77 cities across 24 countries in 5 continents.
Russell was most recently on our screens with the fourth season of The Russell Howard Hour, attracting the largest viewing figures since season one, which was the biggest new non-scripted entertainment show to land on Sky One since 2010 and resulted in a recommission for a further two seasons. A huge hit online, content has been seen over 400 million times across social media since the show’s arrival. The fifth, 14 x 60’ season, will see Russell continue to offer his acclaimed satirical take on global news, politics and stories dominating the cultural zeitgeist on Sky One later this year. Every episode is available to watch globally via Russell Howard’s YouTube Channel which has over one million subscribers.
