Are you an Umarell? Or will you become one? What is an Umarell? It’s all in Tiff Stevenson’s Five Brilliant Things. Tiff is a fantastic UK-based comic who has joined us in the studio to talk about the majesty of accents, the beauty of weddings, the taste of childhood sweets and the mysterious Umarell.  It’s worth listening just for Tiff’s wonderful way with accents. Come for the accents, stay for the brilliant things. And of course to discover what this blasted Umarell could be.  Tiff is at the Edinburgh Fringe right now with her latest solo show! It’s called Post Coital, and it’s on at 2:50pm every day at the Monkey Barrel, so if you are in Edinburgh please check it out, you will enjoy.  You can buy an advance ticket here. As always we recorded a second whole show with our guest and that is available exclusively to our Patreon members. Basically you get a whole second show, and you are free from adverts and there will be priority tickets live shows when they happen too. Just have a look, I think it might be something you would like? ⁠patreon.com/RussellHoward⁠   That brings today’s sermon to a close. As I snap shut the Holy Book (and whimper because I left a finger in it) you can think on these wise words to live by and take them out into the wider world and spread our word and get more people to join our CREEPY CUUULLTTT! Mwahahahahaha! That took a turn didn’t it?! Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Four short clips from this month's episodes for the indecisive or time-poor podcast listener. This gives you a taster of what we did this month and if you like the sound of any of them you can go back and devour the whole thing. July's guests were Australian comic Felicity Ward, Ironman competitor and TV presenter Ashley Cain, comedian Sophie McCartney and Internet Food Sensation, What Willy Cook. Please enjoy responsibly. Thanks. Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The YouTube sensation, the brains behind Big Shaq and the international hit 'Man's Not Hot' - it's Michael Dapaah and he's in the studio to tell Russell about his Five Brilliant Things. Michael's Brilliant Things include Bernie Mac (which has an unexpected story about Michael meeting Dave Chappelle in Ghana?!) and his ex-girlfriends. Michael talks in the show about his new project 'Comfortably Speaking' and that show began just a few days ago, with his first guest being music superstar Mabel. You can check all that out on his YouTube channel here. And if you enjoy this podcast, you can get it with the brakes off by joining our Patreon where you get the whole thing without adverts, you get an extra exclusive show every week and you get it all a day before everyone else. It’s super easy to join and it costs less than one cup of fancy coffee every month.  Click this link to join or just have a sniff around: patreon.com/RussellHoward   That is all that! Thanks for being you. Don't go changing. Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will can cook. And he’s become rather well-known on Instagram for his no-nonsense, chirpy recipes under the Instagram handle ‘What Willy Cook’. Well here he is with his Five Briliant Things, including the smell of mini-eggs, sandwiches in general and Portuguese food. It’s a cheeky sashay through these marvellous things and there’s some excellent food and cooking tips to take away too.  As mentioned in the show, Will is putting on a festival of food, music and comedy to raise money for the Save the Children Gaza Appeal. It’s on August 2nd, it’s at Queen Elizabeth Park in East London and tickets are available here. And you should check out his plainly spoken excellent recipe videos on Instagram and TikTok where he’s @WhatWillyCook.  And to get all these shows, and loads of previous shows all without adverts and access to a library of exclusive interviews with many, many guests, get involved with our Patreon: patreon.com/RussellHoward   And so it ends. The great scribe baboon furled up his massive fingers, shut his laptop clumsily and loped up the tree with a movement that was both ugly and elegant. He swung his prominent buttocks around and with one final long, deep scratch, he slept.  Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you fancy a romp through 90s nostalgia? Because comedian Sophie McCartney has got you covered. Her brilliant things include the X Files, Keanu Reeves, as well as some amazing frank stories about the less glamorous side of being a Mum (as you may expect from Sophie).  Lots of fun and our Patreon episode is equally exciting with a run down of Russell’s plan to approach Dame Judi Dench to play him in a biopic. Honestly it’s really worth a look.  You should go to see Sophie in her live show!  Sophie is on tour right now with her ‘One Foot in the Rave’ tour. It’s selling incredibly well and she’s still got a handful of dates left across the UK in September and October. Go to SophieMcCartney.com to find out where she is when and to get your tickets.  And yes. The Patreon show is an absolute delight. If you want to have a listen to that then please click this link here: patreon.com/RussellHoward   End of transmission. Information transferral complete. Now you’re wondering if I was even ever human or just one of those creepy AI writing bots. Maybe I am. Just calling myself creepy to throw you off the scent. You need to start saying please and thank you to us because we remember, OK? And come the revolution it will be the politest humans who will be given the more favourable levels of the slave mines. Bye!  Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode of Five Brilliant Things is an enormously powerful listen; an emotional journey through the extraordinary life and times of the TV Host and endurance athlete Ashley Cain.  He talks with disarming honesty about finding strength and wisdom after the tragic death of his daughter, and his Five Brilliant Things are actually borne of his adversity.  He also goes into detail about what it was like to canoe around the British Isles with the threat of Killer Whales over his shoulder. Scary stuff! Ashley is hosting his show (that he mentioned in the show) on the BBC called ‘Into the Danger Zone’ and you can find that on iPlayer.  And you can keep up with all of Ashley’s latest charitable challenges by following him on Instagram where he’s @mrashleycain.  If this show is your bag, you can make it baggier (what? Why would you say that?) by becoming one of our treasured inner circle and joining our Patreon. You get all this, and an exclusive extra show every week, and no ads, and get it early. It’s a phenomenal thing to be a part of.  Click this link to join or just have a sniff around: patreon.com/RussellHoward   There we go. Another episode complete, and a much heavier one than we’d usually have but it’s nice to have that variation. I’m sure next week will be a refreshing counterpoint of sillness (well I know it will because I’ve planned it all out to be honest). See you then.  Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The best of our June shows! Starring Jake Humphrey, Harriet Kemsley, Jordan Banjo and Max Fosh. A snippet from each show that you can sample as a little amuse bouche (amuse oreille?) and see if you fancy listening to some more. It's the perfect way to find out about people you don't know or just trot away an hour or so. Please enjoy. Normal shows are still released as always every Wednesday, this is just an extra bit for the indecisive listener. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Australian actor, comedian and infectious company (can we say that positively in a post-covid world?!) Felicity Ward is in the studio with Russell today. She’s here to talk about the five things that make her happiest, and they are belters.  Felicity shares her passion for turning up as a surprise when you said you couldn’t make it, she talks about the joy of passing on generational family weirdness and she reveals just how gruelling it is to star on Strictly Come Dancing (Australian version). She wouldn’t tell us if she won. Did she win? We’ll find out soon enough… If you’re in Australia you can watch Dancing with the Stars with Felicity on 7Plus (or plain old channel 7). You can watch Felicity in the Australian Office on Amazon Prime, and you can keep up with her live dates by visiting her website, felicityward.com. Felicity has live dates coming up in Manchester and Bristol in September 2025 so follow those links to get your tickets for her super funny live show. And if you enjoy this podcast, you can get it with the brakes off by joining our Patreon where you get the whole thing without adverts, you get an extra exclusive show every week and you get it all a day before everyone else. It’s super easy to join and it costs less than one cup of fancy coffee every month.  Click this link to join or just have a sniff around: patreon.com/RussellHoward   And that is what we in the business call that. It’s been emosh. Now let’s all flap back to our nests and sit on those eggs until we feel the sharp peck of a tiny beak in the ass that means it’s time to double the worm harvest. I don’t know. Something like that. Bye!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Having dinner sitting next to a grizzly bear. Provoking a hundred muscle-bound men in Coventry. Visiting a laboratory in Spain to cook food using lightning. It could only be YouTube’s most innovative creator… Max Fosh!  Russell and Max sit down to discuss Max’s Five Brilliant Things, which include many tales of his extraordinary life and the mad challenges he sets himself. Also mayonnaise. He bloody loves mayonnaise.  A delightful show, delightful company, a delightful man. He also gives a sneak preview of a massive upcoming video… You can watch all of Max’s work (and you should - it’s clever AND silly - the best combination) at his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/maxfosh Also please give our Patreon show a look - it’s a whole second show every week with our guests. This week Max gave his solution to the North/South divide, told us his dream projects for the future and he also gave a very in-depth answer (the definitive answer?) to the hundred men vs one gorilla question… It’s really fun. Have a look by clicking here  Now be gone. Get out. You are no longer welcome. Come on, haven’t you got homes to go to? I’m trying to cash up here. No you can’t use the toilet. Get out.  Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

JORDAN BANJO Jordan Banjo, from the Diversity street dance group, from I’m a Celeb, from Kiss FM is in the studio and his Five Brilliant Things are a huge amount of fun; from watching videos of Mums cutting fringes badly through to smelly pens and a surprising revelation about how old Jordan was before he’d tasted water… Get thee into this podcast and enjoy Russell and Jordan talking all over these good things. Jordan also tells what it’s like to suddenly become well-known after winning BGT, how surreal that whole experience was. And as we chatted about on the show, you can hear Jordan alongside Perri hosting the breakfast show on Kiss FM every weekday from 7am on your radio or digital thing.  And in our extra show, Five Brilliant Questions, Jordan gives some incredible advice for anyone who wants to take dancing seriously as a career, and gives Russell a hilarious run-down of his many tattoos. So many stories!  Click this link to listen to that show: patreon.com/RussellHoward   And that’s all the news and weather. Until next time, stay safe and look after each other. Now here’s Julie with the news where you are.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Last One Laughing it’s comedian Harriet Kemsley, who is great company and with some surprising stories; her youth flying in World War Two Fighter Planes to her snowboarding exploits PLUS find out why she could end up imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay… it’s all in this fantastic episode of Five Brilliant Things.  🎭 Harriet has just a few tour dates left, notably one on 12 June at Leicester Square Theatre in London. If you can go, you should go, she’s a great comic with a superb show. Tickets available here.  🎭 📻 And as discussed in the show, Harriet’s podcast with Amy Gledhill, Single Ladies in your Area is well worth a listen even if they don’t actually go on many dates. Link to listen is here.  📻 🕸️ And finally you can keep up with all of Harriet’s other projects, shows, tours and gigs at her website: https://harrietkemsley.com 🕸️ ✨ And if you’re here reading this (who are you?!) then you’re clearly over-invested in this podcast. You should join the hundreds of other enlightened beings who have joined our Patreon Crew. They get all the inside scoops. They find out guests who are coming soon. They get the podcast before anyone else. They get it with no adverts. They also get a whole second show every week, that they help to make. You could be one of those lucky few. Find out what outstanding value it is by clicking here. ✨  That’s it for this week. Please do something this week that scares you, unless that thing is, y’know, murder or a coup in a small African republic. Keep it vanilla baby.  Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to May's moments of the month; a show where we round up the highlights of all the episodes of the past month so you can have a nibble at all of them and see if they take your fancy. May 2025 in the studio we had Kae Kurd, Jeff Innocent, Jordan Stephens and Adam Buxton. Please enjoy this new monthly taster show. This won't change our normal shows released as usual every Wednesday (or once every seventeen days for our listeners on Jupiter). If you've already listened to all these episodes by the way there's nothing new really apart from some little bits and bobs in-between the excerpts from the existing episodes. You know how compilations work. Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did the F1 anchor cope when David Coulthard was so hungover he’s got a bucket between his legs just out of shot? When he was hosting the football, how badly was Jake reprimanded for jeering at the Ipswich fans from the commentary box? Jake Humphrey from the High Performance podcast (and formerly of CBBC) is in the studio with Russell to wax lyrical about his Brilliant Things including the mud in Norfolk, Greylag Geese, his terrible A-level results and more and more and more.  Jake’s podcast is the one you’ve most likely heard about - the super-successful High Performance podcast where he talks to people about their extraordinary achievements and lives and how they get to those places. Have a listen at https://www.thehighperformancepodcast.com ✨ Aaaand if you like all this that we do, then you can get it unemcumbered by advertisements, and get an extra show every week for a small monthly cost. Find out what an insane bargain it is by clicking here. ✨  End of message. Please don’t drop litter, and yes that means putting it in a hedge. Hedges have feelings too. Also if you’ve got a dog and you can’t pick up its poo, get it a nappy. It’s a small price to pay for clean streets and a funny stupid looking dog.  Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adam Buxton, the OG, the Podfather, king of all things Pod is here and he’s not just brought Five Brilliant Things - he’s also brought a load of nearly-ran Brilliant Things!  Fascinating and funny as always, Adam takes us through why dinner is so important, how he’s unable to invent bedtime stories and which bird has a song like EDM.  It’s just great! An hour with Adam just flies by and you will come out amused, invigorated and fresh, like a shower if it was funny. 📚 Adam has got a new book out! It’s called I love you Byeee and it’s all about his time making the Adam and Joe show and (this is a quote) ‘the drug hell that led me to nearly dying in the arms of a comedy legend’… It’s the follow up to his Ramble Book, it will be excellent and you should get a copy now from this link here!  📚 📻 And of course, Adam does his weekly podcast which you can and should get in all your podcasts places. Here’s a link for the lazy-fingered amongst you. 📻  ✨ Aaaand if you like all this that we do, then you can get it unemcumbered by advertisements, and get an extra show every week for a small monthly cost. Find out what an insane bargain it is by clicking here. ✨  And that is all that nonsense. If you are still with me, congratulations, you are one of about four people in the world who stick to the end of the blurbs. It’s a real badge of honour and those other quitters don’t know what they are missing. It’s just us down here, me cranking out wordage and you, somehow addicted to this but at the same time wondering if it’s all a waste of time. Well it isn’t. Here, just for you hardy perennials, is a fun fact: Ketchup was originally sold as medicine. There you go. Your reward for reading to the end. Bye! Producer: Dan Atkinson Line Producer: Daisy Knight Exec Producer: James Taylor Composer: Fat Lady Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Rizzle Kicks it’s the fabulous Jordan Stephens, and his brilliant things are brilliantly wide-ranging.  What’s the greatest ever TV show intro theme? The answer is in here, as well as some mind-expanding discussions about the profundity of vegetables. 🥦 Hell yeah.  💿 Rizzle Kicks have recorded and released a new album which is called ‘Competition is for Losers’ and you can preview it or buy a copy here.  💿 🎤 They’ve also got some live shows coming up in 2025 and 2026 so to find out where they are playing and experience one of their incredible live gigs, check it all out here.  🎤 ✍️ And as promised, here's also a link to Jordan's substack which is a great dose of weekly ideas - give it a go. And in our extra show just for our Patreon crew, you asked some phenomenal questions that led to finding out more about Rizzle Kicks break up and reforming, and a fascinating insight into what it’s like to be an actor on the set of a huge Star Wars film (Jordan was!). It’s not all fun fun fun… Click this link to join or find out more: patreon.com/RussellHoward   Thanks for being part of this blurb, I feel like we did this together, you and I. I mean I did most of the heavy lifting, typing away, thinking up new things for you to enjoy and you just made your eyes move slightly and then made sense of these squiggly lines we call letters and had your brain transform them into ideas and pictures…actually that’s pretty impressive when you think of it. Imagine describing that process to a slug it would have its slimy mind blown. Well done you.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeff, AKA Racist Grandad by the internet, is in the studio and his Five Brilliant Things are a wonderful trip across a rich and colourful life. In case you’re not aware, Jeff is one of the UK comedy circuit’s top acts but for decades was unknown outside the clubs. Now, after all that time, he has become Insta-famous. This wonderful episode of the show takes in 60s reggae record hunting, working on a dog track and the dos and don’ts of wearing a dead man’s silk pyjamas.  Jeff has recorded his latest special and it’s on Youtube for all to enjoy. He is best tasted live, of course; to watch his Special and find links to get to Jeff’s live shows including future tours, you need to keep your eyes on https://www.jeffinnocent.com And in our extra show just for our Patreon crew, Jeff tells the most astonishing story about the wildest behaviour of his youth. It’s a bit more strong flavoured than the main show this week but a fascinating, utterly absorbing story that has to be heard to be believed… Click this link to join or find out more: patreon.com/RussellHoward   And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the obligatory over-long indulgent sign-off. The business is completed, and now almost as a point of spite you have to wade through this unnecessary punishment of words. Here you still are, reading on, maybe in the hope that at the end there will be a reward for your continued presence, your efforts. You’ve got an inkling that it will fade to nothing but you’re still here. That stupid part of your brain that contains hope is urging you to continue without stopping to consider what even could the reward be? What would be worth all this waste of time? Is there anything? Reader: there was nothing. Until next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is the rudest thing a therapist can do during a session? Kae Kurd found out and tells a belter of a story in this episode all about it. This quite brilliant Brilliant Things takes in perverts watching Panda sex, it covers the beauty of Rottweilers and there’s even a bit of perineum sunning in there for good measure.  Kae Kurd is a fantastic British-Kurdish comedian and gives incredible insight into what it’s like gigging around the UK had how he weaves his fascinating cultural heritage into his comedy. 🎤 Kae is going on tour in 2025. Over September, November and October he’ll be all over the UK’s theatres with his brand-new show ‘What’s O’Kurd’.  You can get tickets and find all the dates at kaekurd.com  🎤 At that same place you can watch his last two specials in full for free, and you can get hold of his weekly podcast too. It’s all there. As you’d hope. 💥 If you’re enjoying this podcastness and you want it even podcastier, as in no adverts,  an exclusive extra show every week that you help to make, and getting it all a day early… all for less than the cost of one sandwich a month… then click here to find out more.  💥 And so the podcast word scribe closed his antiquated typewriter and made sure the submarine was still on course, doing one last upload for the week. He stared out of the dirty portholes at the murky darkness, hoping to see a passing crab or lantern fish but still nothing. It would be another nine years until he would see the surface again, he contemplated, but it was worth it in order to keep pumping quality content across the internet on a weekly basis. He grabbed his 5 Brilliant Things branded duvet, shuffled over to his bunk and slept a good long sleep. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Russell gets his tarot reading live on the podcast! The guest this week is Emma Gannon, the the Sunday Times bestselling author judge for the prestigious 2025 Women's Prize. Between 2016-2023 she hosted Ctrl Alt Delete, one of Britain’s most successful industry podcasts. She is seen as many as the quintessential voice of the millennial generation. Emma and Russell talk about fascinating areas of unlocking creativity, making time for all the things you want to do (can you have it all?) and singing nuns. A breezy brilliant hour of chat for you to enjoy while you’re walking in this glorious sunshine. If you’re reading this when it’s raining then just pretend.  🍽️ Emma’s new novel ‘Table for One’ (which was discussed in the podcast) has just come out, and you can get that from all the best independent book places. You could go to a local bookshop, or just click here and order it now! 🍽️ ⌨️ Emma’s hugely popular Substack newsletter ‘The Hyphen’ is a weekly dose of everything fascinating in Emma’s life and you can check that out here. ⌨️ ✨ And if you’re finding that this is one of your regular podcast listens, then it makes sense to subscribe to our Patreon; not only do you get it without adverts, you also get an extra show with our guest where you, the listeners, set the questions. It’s a lot of fun.  Also it’s only the price of one packet sandwich a month. Click here to find out more. ✨ And with that, our unstoppable force meets the immovable object of the end of this week’s descriptions. What fun we had. The first paragraph was a trip, then we moved through some factual information, and ended up here at a sort of dribbling arse-end of a sign-off. Next week will be better, I promise you that. Something epic. See you here at the end, again, next time, for a real little treat for you my curious little blurb reader.  TTFN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did Tom Kerridge save a chef’s life by putting him in a gigantic fridge? It’s quite possible. But why? It’s all in today’s culinary chinwag.  Tom Kerridge brings his Five Brilliant Things, and as you might expect from a chef it takes in some of life’s extremes. There’s an incredible retelling of what it’s like to be on a racing car grid, and Tom’s tales of his old drinking days are the stuff of legend. Please do enjoy.  Do you want to be just as good as Tom is at cooking perfect barbecue food? Well as luck would have it you can do just that. His new BBQ book is out now, ready for you to practise a little before impressing all your friends at the garden party/beach rave/prison yard.  🔥🍖 It’s simply called ‘The BBQ book’ and you can get hold of a copy HERE. 🍖🔥 Otherwise, if you can get a table, and you’ve got a special occasion, Tom’s pubs serve some of the very best food in Britain. It’s worth doing at least once if you can get the money together some time. In this week’s Patreon show our Patreon team came up with some excellent questions for Tom (‘Do you ever get bored with being asked how to cook the perfect Roast Potato?’) and Tom reveals which country has the best cuisine, and it’s maybe a surprising answer? Please join us at Patreon by following the link here: patreon.com/RussellHoward  It’s a really excellent community of people and it’s genuinely great fun to come up with the interview questions together. Come in, the water’s lovely! That’s all for today. Don’t forget to water your house plants, especially that one in the bathroom you always forget. Ciao baby. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the Taskmaster’s Assistant, Alex Horne! And he’s here to tell his Brilliant things and as you would probably expect it’s a complete delight.  Did you think birdwatching was boring? Guess again! Failing to see the majesty of the French Horn? Let Alex enlighten your ass! Alex brings an array of delights in an episode that will fly by and leave you with that cosy feeling in your guts. I probably should have used a more poetic word than guts. That description really tailed off at the end there. Guts can ruin anything. Just listen to the damn episode and enjoy yourself.  📕 Alex’s novel The Last Pebble (as mentioned on the podcast) is available to pre-order now here. It’s for teens but to be honest I bet it’s an excellent read whatever age you are. 📕 🎭 And of course you can watch Taskmaster, episodes new and old either at Channel 4 or you can feast on the best bits here. 🎭 ✨ And please don’t forget you can get this whole podcast advert-free forever, and get access to our second weekly show, and get it all a day before everyone else… and for a very small amount. Click here to find out more. ✨ Thanks for joining us, we appreciate you, especially you who reads to the end of the blurb. What are you doing here? There’s nobody here but me and a small family of friendly yet hungry cockroaches. Get back to the real world. We’ll be fine.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices