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Russell Kane blasts Kate Copstick over Sarah Millican comments

Russell Kane hits back at Kate Copstick

Comedian Russell Kane has hit out at comedy critic Kate Copstick over 'pretty dark' comments she made about Sarah Millican.

Acid-tongued Copstick caused a storm when she appeared on Fringe In Five, Yahoo!'s daily show from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and said that Millican should 'go away, lose weight and come back when she's funny'.

You can watch the episode in question here:

Speaking exclusively to us, Kane admitted he almost swore at Copstick after she made the remarks about the Geordie comedian.

He told us: "It was hard not to tell her to 'f off' but you have to try to be professional and find out which bits of it are just her trying to be controversial and how much of it has to be tackled.

"What she said was abhorrent. Sarah's a friend of mine and I think there were some pretty dark things in [Kate's comments] about women's body shapes that people reacted to quite negatively."

[Russell Kane picks his FRINGE IN FIVE HIGHLIGHTS]


Copstick returned to the show to defend herself after receiving hundreds of negative comments and Russell's co-presenter Emily Dean took the opportunity to confront the critic about what she had said.

Russell explained: "It was great having Emily with me because when Copstick came back for part two Emily had more of a licence to say 'well, I am a woman' and, as effeminate as I am, I can't really get away with that line!"

You can watch that episode here:


And it wasn't just Sarah Millican who came in for criticism from the critic - Russell was also on the receiving end. However, the comedian laughed off the comments and said that he is always suspicious of other comedians who can't take a joke.

He said: "When the first question from Emily [to Kate] was 'you've never reviewed Russell, have you?' and Kate replied 'yes I have, and he was s**t and was responsible for a generation of comedians with big hair and no content', [I thought] if I could have scripted the opening [of the show] I'd have scripted it like that.

"We live in the United Kingdom - do you want to watch a comedian being complimented or do you want to watch them having to cope with that air of awkwardness? Let's be honest, everyone wants to see the second one and I'm perfectly willing to take the bullet."

Russell, who debuted his new show Smallness in Edinburgh before taking it on tour around the UK, said he enjoyed the opportunity to 'play the internet generation Parkie' on the daily chat show.

He added: "It's good to flex those chat muscles and to show that I'm one of those comedians who doesn't always have to be cracking a joke during an interview. A lot of comedians suffer from an inability to have a conversation once the camera is on and I love showing that actually I do love listening. It was a real pleasure and honour to demonstrate that skill."

You can catch up on all the episodes of Fringe In Five at http://uk.screen.yahoo.com/fringe-in-five/

Russell Kane will be touring the UK with his new show Smallness from October. For more information and to book tickets go to: http://www.russellkane.co.uk/live-dates