Mum used to be happy watching Emmerdale... Now she’s been in a £200million robot...she’s changed
IN THE FOURTH SERIES OF TRAVEL SHOW RUSSELL HOWARD AND MUM: GLOBETROTTERS, THE BRISTOLIAN PAIR RETURN TO ASIA – WITH HILARIOUS RESULTS. GEORGIA HUMPHREYS CHATS TO THE COMEDIAN, 39, AND HIS ADORABLE MOTHER NINETTE, 60
Why did you decide to re-visit Asia for these new episodes?
RUSSELL: I’d always wanted to go to Japan and India. So, we did the Holi festival, we found the weird underbelly of Tokyo, we recorded a K-pop song in south Korea... We went to places really off the beaten track, because all the people that worked on the show put together this amazing itinerary.
It’s like this perfect gap year. You do five things a day that ordinarily would be the one thing you’d do for that holiday, and it would be enough.
It looks like you have so much fun filming together...
NINETTE: We had a lovely time doing it.
R: I loved it! It’s put a great strain on mum’s marriage, though. She used to be happy watching Emmerdale and now she’s been to South Korea, she’s been in a £200 million robot and she’s changed. And, to be honest, the rest of the family are beginning to notice it.
N: [laughing] I’ve got to put that record straight... Your dad is perfectly happy with me going!
Does he not fancy joining you on your travels?
N: No, no. He just goes cycling, and now he’s doing paddleboarding.
R: It would be awful, wouldn’t it, if dad was there as well... It would be two people who look identical, in a car, not talking.
What was your standout moment from filming the fourth series?
N: One of my favourite things was on my 60th birthday, and I asked for some ridiculous things. I’ve always wanted to go to the Northern Lights...
R: To put that into perspective, I said, ‘You can do anything you want because it’s your 60th year’, and she wanted to see the Northern Lights. We’re in f ****** Tokyo.
N: So, we improvised. And it was so funny. We were in this hall with all these old ladies, they were called the Pom-Pom girls [the oldest cheerleaders in the world]; they were like 80-odd, the youngest was in their 50s.
They had this little room and they said just, ‘Look in here’, and I opened the door and the producer was there with lights wrapped around him, and he said, ‘Well, I am northern!’ It was so lovely that he did that for me.
Have you got used to having the cameras around?
R: It’s kind of odd, it’s a proper family isn’t it?
I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else but them, so you can forget the cameras are there. You’re just trying to make everyone crack up.
N: The first series was in 2016 in America and it was all the same crew, so it was lovely.
You filmed over two sets of six weeks. is it difficult being away from home?
R: You don’t really miss home – that’s the strange thing. You miss home on the days off, but the [filming] days were so jam-packed with ‘You’re going to meet a man that’s going to try and break six Guinness world records, and now you’re going to meet a man who’s got cosmic energy in his hands and he’s going to give you a massage, and then you’re going to a temple full of rats’.
Then, when you had time on your own, you go, ‘Oh god, I really wish my wife was here’.
N: I didn’t miss home. I was quite happy to be there! In fact, when I got home it was like [sighs], ‘I’m home now. I miss my people, I miss my friends’.
You two seem so close, it’s great to watch you make each other laugh so much...
R: I think that’s the funny thing – I find mum very funny. We’re not trying to outdo each other. So, it’s quite nice to see two people, who actually like each other, hanging out.
On TV, a lot of comedy is quite combative, ‘Who’s going to get the laugh?’ Whereas we’re not really fussed, are we?
N: I don’t think I’m funny at all. I just do silly things.
R: But you’re earnest and you’re completely yourself. There are no affectations.
Do you find it weird watching the episodes back?
N: No, I don’t actually, which is weird... You should do, shouldn’t you? I don’t even comment on myself. I don’t look too bad really!
R: We’ve essentially got this photo album, 14 hours of us travelling the world. It’s going to make mum’s funeral amazing. Perfect showreel!
We’ve got 14 hours of us travelling around the world. It’s going to make mum’s funeral amazing. Perfect showreel!
Russell Howard on the joys of recording his trips with his mum