By Polly Weeks

Phone-in scandals, the Jonathan Ross-Russell Brand saga, expenses

revelations ... the BBC has taken some fearful hits to its reputation

in the past year.

The corporation is under massive pressure to justify its licence fee

revenues, and is being a lot more careful with the content it

broadcasts.

That's a concern for edgy young comedian Russell Howard, who returns

as a panellist in the seventh series of Mock The Week on BBC Two from

July 9.

The 29-year-old took over from Brand when the controversial comedian

left his Sunday morning slot on BBC 6 in late 2006, but himself quit

after a year and a half.

"You're just in a room talking with your mates. And when you're with

your mates what do you do? You get naughtier and naughtier," he recalls.

"Then you slowly forget what you're doing is public broadcasting. So

I stopped because I just didn't like the idea of being in someone's

house talking in the morning."

Howard has some sympathy for Brand, who has fled to the United

States to pursue an acting career in the wake of his ill-judged prank

calls, with Ross, to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

"I find it really depressing because maybe 0.5% of the population

cared and the rest of the nation were just shrugging their shoulders

going, 'Hmmm, I'm not really bothered'," he says.

"What might happen now is we get comedy which is not as initiative

because people are worried about trivial things. I imagine, though,

it'll blow over."

Howard insists he will pull no punches in Mock The Week, with his

role alongside host Dara O'Briain and fellow panellists Frankie Boyle

and Andy Parsons.

"After the Russell Brand-Jonathan Ross thing, we don't have to be

toothless," he says. "That would be a real shame. Half the battle is

compliance - what can and can't be shown.

"It's not the usual topical joke show. What I like about Mock The

Week is that it's big belly laughs rather than that kind of sneering

laugh."

Like a cross between Whose Line Is It Anyway and Have I Got News For You, it includes some of the UK's best-loved comedians.

Outnumbered star Hugh Dennis often features, while this series will also see appearances from Frank Skinner and David Mitchell.

Filming of each half-hour episode takes about three hours, in front of a live studio audience.

"There are moments where our brains go blank and when we stay stuff

that could never, ever get on TV," Howard says. "Then we have to rein

it back in and remember it's a TV show.

"It's such a long recording, and I sit on my knees. Once I got

horrible pins and needles and had this terrible moment where I had all

these comedic legends around me while I was screaming about having

cramp."

For Howard, the potential restrictions on comedians aren't enough to

sour his love for his career - which he has been forging since the age

of 15.

But his goal of becoming a stand-up comic didn't endear him much to family and friends.

"Ed Byrne said something which is very true: before you do stand-up,

you're a real pain because everyone you meet is an audience and you try

to make them laugh as much as you can. You go to the post office and

you're trying to make jokes to the person behind the counter. Now,

though, I just get my stamps and leave."

After school in Hampshire, he headed to Bristol, gaining an economics degree from

the University of West Of England. He started doing five-minute slots

at comedy nights and earning a reputation which gradually saw him take

on gigs around the UK.

"By 22 I was a professional comedian and earning as much money as I

thought I'd ever earn doing a proper job, and I was just so happy," he

says. "I was gigging six nights a week, going all over the country and

there was nowhere else I'd rather have been."

Howard has now left his beloved West Country behind and moved to Leamington Spa, where his girlfriend is studying.

He still returns to his favourite comedy club haunts to try out his new material and check out the new talent.

"I get to go and see new comedians who are really good and make me realise, 'I'd better go and get really good again'," he says.

"With Mock The Week, the great thing is that it's topical, so every

time there's a new story we have to have a new approach to it."

Mock The Week returns on Thursday. Russell Howard plays De Montfort Hall tonight.