Russell Howard’s Good News

One sure way to obtain street cred nowadays, it seems, is to appear on Russell Howard’s Good News show, a comedy programme which is shown on BBC 3, (which is not to be confused with Radio 3 – BBC 3 is a TV channel aimed mainly at kids).  This morning, my middle daughter was buzzing with excitement after receiving umpteen texts from her friends saying that they’d seen her Dad on the show. ​

This very unlikely eventuality occurred because Russell Howard had picked up on my story about replacing the bible with Fifty Shades of Grey at the Damson Dene Hotel and thought this was a good opportunity to poke fun at the idea – the ludicrous, absurd idea – that people older than teenagers might be interested in “sex”. His piece, which included a clip of me taken from the ITV news, was very funny, even to me as the butt of the joke.

The intriguing thing is, where did he get the clip from?  He didn’t get permission from ITV or from me, and the only place where the video existed was actually on this Slow Life blog.  He must have lifted it from here.  A few months back I’d been puzzled when a slightly risque story of mine called “The Scunthorpe Problem” was featured a few days later on Have I Got News For You.  It seems that the researchers for these programmes trawl websites like mine looking for ideas.  Someone who needed the money might think of asking for royalties or (heaven forbid) damages.  I’m just happy to have risen a little bit in my daughter’s estimation.