Season 3 1988

Russ returns with a brand new series of fast-fire comedy - his most inventive and ambitious yet seen on television. In this first show, he plays 11 different characters ranging from a very fat Canadian Mountie to a police constable whose strangest habit is arresting himself.

Remote-control shoes, Lord Nelson's ironing, a tongue-twister of a chief constable and the final of 'Masterbrain of the Universe' - these are just some of the appetisers in a fun-packed half hour with Russ.

'Why not visit the rooftop restaurant in the Leaning Tower of Pisa?' Russ tries hilariously to serve a dinner for two in a restaurant whose floor slopes at an angle of 25 degrees! In another packed show, Russ meets a pocket-sized machine that can put anything or anyone back in time and gives a tour de force performance of one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular songs.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is summoned by the Emperor to compose a suitable tune for his daughter's 21st birthday and Noel Coward returns with a Spanish flavour in 'Beef Encounter'.

There's an identity crisis as Russ plays the three Marx
Brothers at the same time, a cold front is moving in according to the latest Eskimo weather report and Noah has a spot of bother with some of his animals on the Ark.

Russ turns ace snooker player and receives a rude awakening. A bizarre conversation ensues during some morris dancing, and Barratt Holmes nearly puts his foot in it as he solves The Case of the Missing Cobblers.

Russ is in charge of the sound effects in a radio studio for what he thinks is a recording of a war play. The actors arrive and Russ finds that he is in for a terrible shock. Two cowboys reminisce about the old days and Noel Coward , fresh from his steam cabinet, stars in his latest epic Return to Zenda.

In the final show of the present series, Russ finds that he is a suitable case for adoption; Going Ape is the title for a short version of Greystoke - the Legend of Tarzan; the Fat Man returns in a hilarious send-up of the song Rubber Ball and havoc is created in the remake of the film The Seventh Veil

You sit there feeling rotten
Each year you never learn,
You give expensive presents,
But get rubbish in return.
Nan's sweater doesn fit you
And who would buy those socks?
The walnuts are mouldy.
Just hard centres in the chocs.
You're up to here with turkey,
Christmas pudding and hot mince pies.
But don't despair, for here at last,
Is Russ's big surprise!