Review by Steve Bennett

Tiernan Douieb, who’s also a stand-up, has a cheeky glint and is always watchable, while Cambridge Footlights and Newsrevue graduate Lauren Shearing isn’t required to show great range in her characters. They both tend to act as if they’re in a sketch show, delivering lines with one ironic eye on the audience, rather than striving for anything more realistic.

Heavily scripted ‘out-of-character’ banter between the couple proves a neat, effective way to fill the gaps between the skits as Shearing idly plots Douieb’s demise. The only problem is there are more scene changes than this premise needs, so the idea becomes very stretched.

Other than that, it’s slick and professional, with a smattering of good jokes and a handful of good ideas, including the human lightning conductor being dumped by his girlfriend or the Iraq kidnap victim taking a rather relaxed approach to her situation. But there’s not too much in style or substance that’s noteworthy, for good or for bad.

I don’t want to damn this pleasantly amiable hour, but find that faint praise is all I really have for it.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

Review date: 1 Jan 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett