Original Review:

Show Rating:

This, however, is not some slick multimedia presentation with charts and graphs of his progress, but a wilfully lo-fi collection of stories and gags, often about the trip – equally often just about the places he passed through en route.

Some of the jokes are cheesy indeed, and a lot of the tales don’t amount to much, but this is still an effortlessly enjoyable hour, thanks to PBH’s mad-eyed passion. He has the air of a deranged but affable uncle, feverishly cracking gags in an overenthusiastic bid to win favour from a young nephew. His zeal is borderline lunatic, but he knows it and embraces it.

The hour may be peppered with lines like: ‘So I took the 1740 from Rippon to Northallerton’, but this is not just a bus-spotter’s wet dream – even if PBH did work out the average bus number and its standard deviation. Instead, it’s a fast-moving ride (ironic, given the actual speed of travel) through observations, anecdotes, puns and song.

His unreconstructed manic charm – possibly down to the Tourette’s he has - makes easy connections with the audience, and a couple tonight who knew the intricacies of West Yorkshire’s public transport system provide an entertaining, if unlikely, bit of banter. PBH is genuinely excited by his adventure, and that passion rubs off.

He calls the trip futile because he ended up spending far more on accommodation than the price of a train ticket. But it’s certainly given him an achievement, not to mention briskly amusing show.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett