Some comedians comment on the news, very few make the news on a near daily basis. Russell Brand of course, is not just any comedian. Like Ricky Gervais before him he comes to the stand up arena with baggage attached, including perceived jealously from fellow comedians for reaching arena status without ploughing through club after club for years on end, along with accusations of rampant self obsession. Indeed much like Gervais, the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star is a man that polarises opinions, often being labelled a “marmite comedian”.  

With that in mind, for those curious about his new DVD entitled Scandalous, we’ll make this nice and simple. If you avoided the whole Andrew Sachs furore last year because you don’t like Brand then you’ll hate this show. Hate it. If you found the whole debacle to be ludicrously over the top you should delight in what’s on offer here. 

The show picks through the incident and the national scandal (it was on Sky News on the hour, every hour and was commented on in the House of Lords) that followed in often hilarious detail. Judged in hindsight, the over-reaction from the Fleet Street can’t help but be laughed at and Brand almost lovingly digs away at the dressing downs he received from various media outlets.  

While nearly every second of show revolves around ‘Russell Brand, A-list celebrity and tabloid darling’ to mark it down simply as an hour and a bit of vanity is missing the point. Brand lives a life less ordinary and he knows it. Can he be blamed for churning out an arena tour based simply on his delight in telling us what it’s like to be Russell Brand? Hardly; count the news clippings, watch the news reports, why wouldn’t he think that everyone wants to know everything about Russell Brand as even today most of his movements are reported everywhere from Heat to The Sunday Times. To balance matters out there’s a fine dollop of self deprecation on show, not much but just enough for the Londoner to remain likeable.     

Whether you’ll want to watch Scandalous six months down the line is questionable given how dated much of the material will be; and should you come across it on E4 in a few years it’s certainly doubtful the gags will seem as punchy as they do at present. For the minute though this is a fine example of making the best of a bad situation. For those who dig this particular brand of marmite this is top notch stuff.