IT’S safe to say Russell Brand will be glad to see the back of 2008, what with the whole Andrew Sachs controversy which threatened to derail his whole career.

As we enter 2009, he’s back to what he does best, making people laugh.

The question on everybody’s lips was how he will address last year’s controversy. The answer comes very quickly as he enters the stage to a video montage of all the headlines the outrage created, playing as a backdrop. Although apologetic for the offence caused, he devotes a large section of his show to sending up the furore which surrounded it.

Despite the damage to his career and reputation, he certainly hasn’t toned down his act and continues to be just as outrageous and extrovert as ever with comments about Helen Mirren and The Queen that would send middle England into even further uproar.

With a partisan audience who hang on his every word he certainly won’t have offended anyone this time.

Quite simply, if you removed the controversial and outrageous elements of Russell Brand’s act, he wouldn’t have an act, and what a dull little world we would live in.