Five fast Fringe questions with...Jess Robinson

With over 3000 shows at the world's biggest arts festival, here at The Reviews Hub, we want to make the job of choosing your Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows that little bit easier. So here's Jess Robinson answering our annual Five Fast Fringe Questions.

Podcast: Jess Robinson is Impressive

If you're a fan of the On the Mic podcast interviews (and why wouldn't you be?) you'll have heard the voice of impressionist, Jess Robinson. For this episode we talk to the lady herself about her impressive new Edinburgh show. Somewhere... in a cafe in Waterloo...

Interview: Jess Robinson

Why did Jess Robinson turn down Britain's got Talent to put on her own show in Edinburgh? Instead of competing on TV's highest watched talent show, she has chosen to do it her own way, single handedly competing against over 25,000 other acts to fill a 175 seat theatre every night for a month.

Interview: Jess Robinson, The Rise of Mighty Voice

A chat with Jess Robinson.

Jess Robinson: 'I am a massive, massive liar!'

Jess Robinson explains to Martin Walker that she was so desperate to avoid going back to the day job after appearing in panto, she took up doing impressions. Turns out, she was very good at it. Jess shares a couple of celebrity music mash-ups from the Wheels of Sixty-Four Tunes including a Julie Andrews version of the hit, All About the Base.

The Jess Robinson three minute interview

Jess Robinson has toured the country with Joan Collins playing her daughter in Full Circle, as well as playing countless leading roles in major productions. On TV and radio she's appeared on The Now Show, 15 Minute Musicals, Dead Ringers and several other primetime shows. Martin Walker asks about her Edinburgh Festival Fringe outing.

This new Radio 4 sitcom is written by and stars Dave Lamb, who is most famous for doing the voice overs for Come Dine With Me, as agoraphobic conspiracy theorist Dave Railings - presumably Lamb did not want to bother having to act someone with a different name.

In this first episode, Dave's younger brother Jim (Jim North - again another person who seems unwilling to playing someone with a different name) makes friends with an Asian Geordie newsagent Hannan (Jess Robinson) and decorates a birthday cake for her son Alan (named after Shearer). However, Dave becomes convinced that the cake is actually a bomb planted by the Americans to kill masses of people to lessen the damage caused be peak oil.

Much of the humour is of the cringing sort. For example, when Jim learns that Hannan's husband is, "no longer with us", Jim exclaims with joy. Dave later asks young Alan is his father, "died with a... kaboooooom?"

The ideas that spring from this show are rather off the wall but nonetheless interesting ones. For example, in next week's episode Dave's post arrives on time, leading him to think his normal postman has been kidnapped by an alien.

However, nothing seems to be hugely laugh-out-loud, as was evidenced by the lack of belly laughs from the studio audience at the recording. Interesting, isn't it, that a sitcom broadcast at 11pm feels the need for a laughter track, whereas the CBBC sketch show Sorry, I've Got No Head which goes out at 5pm doesn't see the need for one (see last week's TV review)?