Russell Brand says he is stopping his YouTube show The Trews and taking a break from Facebook and Twitter to spend some time “learning”.
“I think we’ve gone as far as we can with the Trews for now,” he said in in a video titled “Final Episode Of The Trews – Goodbye, Good Luck”.
“I’m not going to be doing the Trews, I’m not going to be on Twitter, or Facebook, I’m going to be learning because I know real change is coming and I want to be part of that, said Brand in a piece to camera.
Final episode of the Trews - goodbye, also off Twitter for a while https://t.co/HVAul5wfHV
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) August 20, 2015
The Trews saw Brand regularly weigh in on current affairs, with some posts attracting millions of views. His interview with Ed Miliband during the election attracted more than 1.3m views and widespread media coverage, though many questioned whether the move eventually helped or undermined the Labour leader’s campaign.
Brand said his decision to stop the show was driven in part by what he sees as the cyclical nature of news reporting and the response he got from the media to the show.
“Media behaves in a very sort of predicable and formulaic manner,” he said. “If you speak out about that process you become the recipient the target of such incredible condemnation it’s in a way overwhelming and in others completely understandable.”
However, Brand’s hiatus may also have something to do with his planned “Trews World Tour” which takes in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand this autumn.
And anyone hoping Brand will take a lengthy break on social media may be disappointed as he signed off the video post saying that he would be “back soon”.
