Duo fall back on old stories

The Two Faces Of Mitchell And Webb, Civic Hall

Bar the comic crudity of Little Britain, it’s rare nowadays to find an old fashioned sketch-show series being toured around the country.

But this is what David Mitchell and Robert Webb offered to the Civic Hall last night, using more than a decade of comedy writing as a duo to help them.

The pair are most famous for being the stars of Peep Show, a painfully accurate look at how your supposed 21st century metrosexual man sees the world.

So it is perhaps surprising to see them doing a show in the style of the Fast Show or Harry Enfield.

Some of the sketches are great, notably one featuring a middle-aged man who can’t stand babies and another very brief interlude featuring Webb as a mime artist.

And there are plenty of favourite catchphrases which go down a treat.

But much of the two hour show is uninspired and unoriginal, while much of the material is lifted from their recent BBC 2 series.

It’s a shame, because the duo are undeniably talented and offer glimpses of their ad-libbing ability after the odd mistake and when they invite the audience to ask Big Questions. But here they largely seem content to perform well within their capabilities.

By James Calnan