Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Lovers of gothic comedy-horror epics will find a new cult favourite in At Your Service.

Making his Fringe debut, Hudson Hughes plays Reverend Derek Gritt, a celebrity vicar, reluctantly back among the crude plebs of his rural parish to conduct the funeral of his fan, Jane Plemley, as the light fades on his broadcast career.

Godsby-upon-Treen is a cursed place, bedevilled by creepy goings-on, but the oblivious Gritt is more concerned about getting some social media clips and getting away from this backwater. Given the show broadly shares The League Of Gentlemen’s sensibilities, Royston Vasey’s  ‘you’ll never leave’ motto certainly comes to mind.

At Your Service is less of a spoof of shlocky horror than a tribute to the genre with some fine jokes added. What’s most remarkable, though, is the hugely impressive execution. Props, videos, visual effects, songs and even animatronics give the show a sense of scale rare in a Fringe cave. Even though a key robotic puppet, cutely monstrous in the style of a Muppet, malfunctioned tonight, there’s still plenty to enjoy.

Hughes’s performance, too, is gratifyingly bigger than the space requires. His man of the cloth is gloriously amoral, vain and hubristic – convinced that he’s got a job for life as the Church’s Bishop of the Internet, despite its website having all the design sophistication of a 1995 Geocities page. 

That’s one of several subplots woven together to keep the intrigue going even after we’ve worked out that Ms Plemley was no sweet old lady and that Gritt is far from saintly. It’s a bravura performance from Hughes, keeping his awful vainglorious alter ego credible yet funny through all the melodrama, let alone keeping all the show’s whistles and bells on track. He’s put a huge amount of effort into this without ever overlooking the humour in his over-the-top but irresistible storytelling – and it has paid off marvellously. 

Review date: 16 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Underbelly Cowgate