Show seen in Vatican and North Korea

Russell Howard's Good News has racked up 11 million global views in more than 180 countries since being made available on YouTube.

The comedian's video channel allows fans to legally watch full episodes in countries where the show isn't officially broadcast.

Since launching in 2014, the channel has even found viewers in North Korea and Vatican City.

Good News has also been subtitled and uploaded to Chinese video site AcFun, where it has also been watched more than 4 million times.

The figures were announced as it was confirmed that the programme will return to BBC Two on October 22. Previous series have attracted up to three million viewers a week when catch-up views are counted, and topped the iPlayer chart.

Howard is also the biggest British comedian on Facebook with 3.1 million fans, compared to 2.9million for Michael McIntyre.

This Christmas, he will also co-star alongside his sister Kerry, Greg Davies, Neil Morrisey and EastEnders' actor Sophie Thompson in the feature-length BBC Two comedy-drama A Gert Lush Christmas, which he also co-wrote.

Published: 2 Oct 2015