Review by Nione Meakin

This three-piece have been steadily gaining acclaim on the live circuit and now, as they are about to launc their own BBC Two TV series, they present a 'best of'. It's a canny move if not particularly adventurous, allowing them to cherry-pick their best sketches and underline what a safe set of hands they are.

Although some of their ideas feel vaguely familiar – fairytale characters in 21st century settings for instance, or the crack team of spies trying to understand the workings of 'The Female' –  what sets them a notch above the average sketch group is the quality of the performances.

A slight piece of whimsy about an illicit affair between a crow and a scarecrow is worked up into a pocket masterpiece of physical comedy, the recasting of the tooth fairy as a butch, aggressive Geordie gave far better value than that sentence suggests, while a skit about the Big Bad Wolf meeting his porcine victims as part of his rehabilitation actually made me wheeze, so brilliant and ludicrous was Kevin O'Loughlin's characterisation.

The trio (although actually there are four; writer and director John Hoggarth is 'The Ghost' who doesn't appear on stage) have impressive theatrical credentials and it shows. Paul Charlton (‘The Geordie’) is a Fringe First-winning playwright, you might have seen Graeme Rooney (‘The Ginge’) in various Scottish TV shows, and O'Loughlin (guess which one he is) starred alongside Simon Pegg in Run Fat Boy Run, among other credits.

It makes a pleasant change in the often ramshackle world of sketch, where enthusiasm and energy usually takes precedence over execution. There's something refreshing, too, in the innocence of much of their work. This was one of the few comedy shows I've attended where I've seen kids in the audience and not wondered what their parents were thinking.

This isn't to say it's twee or cute (although watch people coo over Rooney's lovesick crow), more that it's the sort of charming, universal humour that works on most ages, a delicious parade of silly dancing, men riding broom-horses and other overblown theatrics.

I'll admit I was sceptical at first: the performances seemed almost too slick and the concepts too slight. But as the show goes on that somehow doesn't matter. The Ginge, The Geordie and The Geek might not break new ground but so what? They're really good.

Review date: 13 Aug 2013
Reviewed by: Nione Meakin