An Audience with Bob and Barry Cryer - review

Now aged 81, Barry Cryer has been a comedy writer and performer for over 60 years, and so has accrued an endless array of jokes and reminiscences that his anecdotes are said to hunt in packs. While billed as an evening to promote Cryer's forthcoming crowdfunded collection of parrot jokes (to be co-written with son Bob Cryer), in reality this is a gentle reflection on a life of incident and humour.

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On the Radio 4 show in January, panellists were asked to add a word to the title of a song to make it a lot less appealing. Barry Cryer suggested 'Papa's got a brand new colostomy bag'. The listener complained that the joke was an 'offensive and unacceptable portrayal of disability' and that mentioning the device for'a laugh from a negative stereotype was no longer acceptable'.

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Last night's Slapstick Festival fundraiser was a rare treat for comedy fans, as Bristol packed the hall to enjoy performances from Rory Bremner, Tim Vine, Barry Cryer, Neil Innes and the legendary John Cleese.

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Edinburgh is world famous for its annual Festival Fringe (5-29 Aug) which showcases performing arts from across the world, but focusses mainly on comedy.

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Edinburgh's often very focussed on the young and the new. But forget those whipper-snappers, complaining about the weight of turning 30, what about those with real experience of the world? Here's our round-up of just some of the over-60s hitting the festival. In ascending order of age.

The secret to Victoria Wood's popularity was that her humour allowed her to be "inoffensive and yet quite naughty." There may be comedians who were sharper or funnier, but they couldn't claim the huge affection Victoria Wood had. She was loved by so many because she'd never resort to shocks, sex or scandal to grab attention, finding the right tone by being a tiny bit "naughty" but never cruel.

Julie Walters, Barry Cryer, Celia Imrie, Alison Steadman, Michael Ball and others offer funny anecdotes and warm memories of her and if you begin to feel it's perhaps getting too sweet and sad, clips of Victoria Wood elbow their way in, being a little bit "naughty" to correct the balance. You can't be melancholy when she pops up on screen to discuss ageing women visiting the doctor, some with pelvic floors dangling and another holding her cervix in a margarine tub.

We also learn of Wood's Lancashire childhood and how she saw Joyce Grenfell's act as a girl, and became fascinated with the image of a lone woman on a stage who could make everyone laugh.

The third series Brian Pern from Fast Show alumni, Rhys Thomas and Simon Day's, fly on the wall comedy about that stalwart of British cultural life, the ageing rocker.

This particular triptych focuses on Pern's (Day) 45 year anniversary as a musician but really it just continues where the last 2 series left off, Thomas as the brazenly manipulative doc' maker following the childlike but self-centred rock star as he meanders through his life and career, making bad decision after bad decision.

Brian Pern is a member of that species of comedies, where much like Steve Coogan's Saxondale, there is not much laughter at the characters japes and misadventures, there is however a shit tonne of smiling. It's nice, easy to watch and well made, but not brilliant.

The best moments come from the supporting cast, particularly Lucy Montgomery as Pern's eccentric South American girlfriend, Pepita. The absolute stand out is Michael Kitchen who bristles with boredom as the Prog stars long-time manager, John Farrow and is a genuinely brilliant comic creation.

Indeed, I think if you took Kitchen away from the show, it would fall very, very flat, which is really the fault of the scripts. They plod along nicely but a lot of it seems like filler between gags on a sketch show and much of the comedy comes from the star qualities of its guest appearances (big shout out to Peter motherfucking Bowles!) and the choices they make more than the actual comic writing.

Rhys Thomas, who wrote and directed the series has been in the comedy game for 20 years now, and is in the unique position of being part of The Fast Show gang while also being a relatively young writer with much time to develop. The fact that he is survived for so long in the cut throat world of comedy, demonstrates to this reviewer that he probably will and I expect him to be around for a very long time, like some sort of Barry Cryer 2.0, a remnant of the good old days, who comes to prominence once his more talented peers have passed away. Sorry Rhys, that's harsh.