Photo - Steve Buttercase

The Portland Arms - Wednesday 22nd May

There is a school of thought that if you play Mozart to a child in the womb it will improve its general level of intelligence. If that is true, then I'm pretty sure Dutch Uncles were played Shostakovich, Stockhausen and Frank Zappa every day for the whole nine months.

They use the word "atypical" to describe their astonishing cover of Grace Jones' "Slave To The Rhythm" which had to wait for the encore at The Portland Arms and the word is an apt description of their whole persona.

Lead Singer Duncan Wallis is equal parts Alex Kapranos and Brian Ferry to look at, with Jools Holland's stage manner but David Byrne's dance moves. His twitching and jitter-bugging really brought the performance to life when he left his beloved keyboard to indulge.

The band themselves have that down-played fashion sense that characterised early Talking Heads photo shoots. Wallis looks a bit like an estate agent, right down to the sensible shoes and shiny black trousers, and the two guitarists seemed to model themselves on Simon from 'The Inbetweeners'... so they give the impression that they are a band that lets the music do the selling -and boy does it do that.

Dutch Uncles would probably be filed alongside Clock Opera and Hot Chip but they offer far more than either of those bands. They owe much of their creative force to the influence of bands like XTC, Television and Talking Heads and perhaps later 80's bands like Japan and the quirky Stump (who had viral success with their initial indie release "Quirk Out" but the follow up - "A Fierce Pancake" - fell flat somewhat ironically).

The mathematical perfection of Dutch Uncles' rhythmic creativity is actually cerebrally stimulating on one level - you feel refreshed after listening - and their funk grooves go from the downright infectious via the inventive to the impenetrable - but I love that. Great art should require more of those who experience it and you need to dig deep to get every nuance of this band. Of course when you get there it is satisfying and rewarding. "Easy come easy go" is not a bad cliche to describe the enjoyment and comprehension of performance art.

The new album "Out Of Touch In The Wild" is a little gem and played live all the tracks take on a wonderfully organic realism, sometimes lost in the record's sharp clean production. I particularly loved "Threads" and "Brio" because having wrestled with them for a week or so the angular rhythms and time signatures were more familiar to me. The single "Fester" weaves its way around some jaw-dropping timing without sacrificing the obligatory "hook" - all in two and a half minutes. I could go on.

Dutch Uncles are a truly atypical and astonishing band, as tight as the fabled aquatic fowl's fundament and with originality and creativity to spare. They are on the bill at Glastonbury. See them if you can.

Steve Buttercase

Cambridge admissions chiefs have announced this week that the number of state school students accepted to the University has gone up five per cent. This news comes despite the increase in tuition fees in 2012 that has seen students pay three times as much as before, to a maximum of 9k a year.

This increase has been welcomed by many, not least the University, who have reportedly invested 2.7m on outreach programmes across the country, as well as independent initiatives set up by many of the Colleges. These moves, partly motivated by fears that the tuition fee changes might put off prospective students from poorer backgrounds applying, have seemed to yield some results, with the proportion of state school applicants rising to 63.3 per cent.

However, there is still evidence that privately educated students are disproportionately represented at Cambridge, at 36.7 per cent of the undergraduate intake. Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), which show that almost 90 per cent of university starters nationally are state-educated, illustrate a remaining public school leaning in Cambridge.

Mimi Shaul, a first-year Engineer at Robinson, was pleased by the figures, saying: "I am glad that the University is working to persuade people to not be too daunted by the fee increases. State school students like me should not be put off applying, because the scheme allows you time to get a good income before repayments start."

Mike Sewell, Director of Admissions at Cambridge, said the University "works hard to reach talented and ambitious students throughout the UK", and that its "commitment to fair admissions makes this available to students from all backgrounds."

He also emphasised that "academic excellence" was the qualifier for a successful application, making clear that, while committed to a fair, open and diverse admissions system, Cambridge want the most evidentially intelligent students. Challenges remain as to the level of applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds and the level of female applications which are still outweighed by male applicants, although they did increase to 16 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.

Henry Pritchard - News Reporter

Photo - Robert Charleston

Can an epic novel be adapted into a one-man show? Lizzie Mahoney interviews Heart of Darkness director, Maddie Skipsey, and actor, Guy Clark.

One-actor shows are notoriously difficult to successfully produce; without a talented director and principle actor, a one-person show can seem self-indulgent and even dull. However, the Dryden society's Heart of Darkness, directed by Maddie Skipsey and starring Guy Clark, is shaping up to be a stunning adaption of Joseph Conrad's novel. Maddie's production uses the one-actor medium to great effect, allowing it to tell a deliciously unsettling story of one man's journey through the African jungle into the subconscious recesses of his mind.

Guy Clark is currently preparing to play Marlow, the English sailor who embarks on a mission to make contact with the elusive and maniacal ivory trader Mr Kurtz. This is an intensely demanding role, both physically and mentally since Guy has to perform a thirty-five page script as well as assume the roles of the many characters Marlow encounters along his journey. Watching him in rehearsal is fascinating: he alternates between the weary storyteller Marlow, the erratic Russian trader, and Kurtz's beloved widow with striking ease.

Guy approaches the roles of Marlow's companions not as individualised characters, but as fragments of Marlow's own mind: "They're all slightly overdone, because I'm not really playing these characters, but Marlow's interpretation of them... because they're all filtered through Marlow's mind, there's always the question of, 'how far is this a certain character, and how far is it only the way Marlow sees them?'". This production questions whether Marlow's narrative is a true representation of events or only an interpretation, and asks: can we ever really communicate the stories of our lives? Are our stories impaired by memory, which colours and distorts our perceptions?

Of course, any adaptation of Heart of Darkness can't ignore the novel's ambivalent approach to issues of race and colonialism, and Guy sees this as an integral aspect of the story which cannot be excused or overlooked: "Marlow's a pretty sympathetic character most of the time, but even he is a product of his age. He's not part of the awful colonial operation, but neither is he unduly ahead of his time... he views his African crew in a completely dehumanising way... he refers to them as 'savages', at best, 'instruments' to help him in his operation." Maddie hopes that this unsettling aspect of Marlow's character will lead the audience to feel "really complicit in what he does", and that Guy's direct addresses to the audience will implicate them in his actions, evoking a mood of tense and uncomfortable disconcertment.

This one-person show never feels hindered by its lack of a large-scale cast and production. Maddie leaves much of the narrative's detail to our imagination, and yet the combination of Conrad's language, which writer George Johnston has kept very close to the original text of the novel, and Guy's storytelling skill, means that we can absolutely picture everything Marlow describes. Maddie sees Conrad's description of the landscape as having "a very sublime, imaginative quality", and this is kept at the forefront of this production; the minimalist set design allows the language to take centre stage, evoking a picture of the 'whited sepulchre' of the colonialists' European headquarters and 'the horror' of their rapacious operation in the Congo.

This production promises to be a fascinating exploration of the unsettling nature of Europe's colonial history, as well as an intimate portrait of one man's attempt to tell the story of his life. If you feel like switching your brain off in the middle of exam term, then this might not be the play for you, but Heart of Darkness looks as though it will be a powerful and challenging adaptation of a novel which raises vitally important questions about Empire, race and the subjectivity of interpretation.

Heart of Darkness is on at the Corpus Playroom, Tuesday 21st to Saturday 25th May at 7pm.

ADC Theatre, Tues 21st May - Sat 25th, 7.45pm

Once again the Marlowe Society has revivified a masterpiece of Elizabethan drama for a modern audience, but this time there is a twist: Hamlet, struggling with love for Ophelia and desperate to avenge the death of the king, is now a young woman.

Sarah Livingstone as the lead was perfection itself. It felt like she was born for this role and, if nothing else, the decision to recast Hamlet as a woman should be praised for giving her an opportunity to really showcase her skill. Her oscillations between sanity and madness, her interactions with all of the other characters and the solid emotional backbone to every single one of her lines truly made this production. Ophelia (Ellen Robertson) was most powerful in exploring her relationship with Hamlet, and particularly in the rejection scene; the lesbian element used by this production also added more depth to the idea of forbidden love.

Lady Hamlet was not the only gender change. The Players, of whom Kay Dent deserves special mention for the intensity of her monologues, were also recast as women. Their miniature play, preceded by an interesting prologue of shadows cast on a screen, ended the first half in a scene of pure chaos in which the words were allowed to slip into the background. Polonius (Charlotte Quinney) was transformed into a mother, adding a much stronger family dynamic; the comic scenes in general, and Tom Fraser in particular, were very strong in this production.

Matt Clayton brought an innovative approach to the role of the dead king, quite apart from the touching father-daughter dynamic enabled by the gender changes. He seemed more zombie or demon than ghost, as he writhed around the stage in the half-light, and the difficulty with which he first spoke as he struggled to cross the boundary between life and death was very engaging, if hard to follow. Most of the other performances were very good, but lacked the extra depth and finesse needed to really pull the characters right to the foreground; in particular, more might have been made of the relationship between Hamlet and Horatio. Scenes without Livingstone had the tendency to feel like filler material, rather than fully engaging our interest.

The elephant in the room thus far is the supposed Cold War setting. Absolutely nothing was made of this. It influenced the costume design - generally strong - and sometimes the music choice - less effective and sometimes too distracting - but had no impact on interpretation or emotional presentation of the text. The giant clock counting down played upon the Cold War theme, but in the long period between the innovation wearing off and the final climax (when it came back into play) it seemed more a reminder of the length of this show and exacerbated the moments at which it dragged. The lack of the most basic props was often annoying; perhaps the budget was blown on fencing equipment, in which case the excitement of the final duel suggests it was money well-spent.

As my companion noted, despite the best attempts of our schoolteachers it is impossible to read Hamlet; we are always 're-reading' it, as it is so ingrained in our cultural backgrounds. Equally, you never really get to see Hamlet for the first time. Yet maybe, with the new perspectives offered, if not by the Cold War setting then certainly by the female lead, by this production, you can.

Ashley Chhibber

Image: ADC Theatre

Photo - James Chettle

Cambridge ran, threw and jumped their way to a 4-0 clean sweep over Oxford in Saturday's 139th Athletics Varsity match, in front of a packed crowd at Wilberforce Road.

After suffering overall defeats in Rugby and Rowing, this performance was the perfect repost for light-blue sport, and with conditions more or less perfect there were some superb individual performances to boot - with Cambridge stalwarts Jon Cook and Emma Perkins leading the way. The first half of the Men's Blues match was a cagey affair between two evenly matched squads, yet from the moment Cook produced an electrifying burst of speed to triumph over 1,500m, Oxford were always slipping behind and the victory (by a final score of 117-93) was never in doubt.

If Cook provided the best accelerated sprint, Tom Neill was the most sustained sprinter on show as he won the 100m and 200m before coming from behind on the last leg to propel the 4x100m Relay team to victory as well. Club President Matt Houlden was another dual winner in the Triple Jump and the Long Jump as he cleared a windy personal best of 7.07m.

Men's Captain Ross Elsby took two sprinting second-places (behind Neill) before enjoying a win of his own in the 110m Hurdles, while Joe Christopher eased to a fine victory over 5,000m. Elsewhere, Ryan Harper won the Hammer and Keno Mario-Ghae the High Jump, while Toby Haseler (Shot Put) and Quentin Gouil (Pole Vault) led home 1-2 finishes for the Light-Blues. Honourable mentions must also be made for Dion Kramer - who placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th in three hurdles events, for Tom Watkins (pictured), Matt Leach and Justas Dauparas who all finished second with personal best performances, and Lewis Lloyd, who secured double 3rd place in two ultra competitive middle-distance races.

For the women it must be mentioned that of the five medallists at the recent BUCS Championships three were unavailable, but the two who were present, Perkins and Alison Greggor, were predictably dominant with five wins between them.

After easing home to take the High Jump with a best clearance of 1.78metres, Perkins also won the Long and Triple Jumps, while Sarah Williams ensured a jumping clean sweep with victory in the Pole Vault. Greggor won the 5,000m by 12 seconds before outsprinting teammate Katherine Turner to take a thrilling 1,500m as well.

Elsewhere while Oxford's Nadine Prill took a stunning treble in the 100m, 200m and 400m, Women's Captain for next year, Alice Kaye was close behind in second place in all three races. Polly Keen enjoyed a 24 second triumph in the 3,000m Steeplechase ahead of teammate Jocelyn Trayler-Clarke, while Katie Sandford broke the 70 second barrier to win the 400m Hurdles. Georgina Howe won the Hammer and came 2nd in the Discus; while Kiara de Kremer (Javelin), Nora Rossberg (800m) and Lucy Crossman (High Jump) were three other runners-up in a 114-86 overall win.

Not to be outdone, Cambridge also won the two second team matches: with the Alverstone's (Men) winning by 131 points to 80 and the Alligators (Women) by 117.5 to 82.5.

Top performances came from Sylvester Juwe (100m and 200m), David Twigg (Hammer and Discus). There was four out of four wins in the distance events - three of which came in a 1-2 finish, with Will Ryle-Hodges (1,500m) and Matt Grant (3,000m Steeplechase) each showing the superb calibre of Cambridge distance running with times well worthy of Blues selection. For the women, Chidera Ota won the 100m and 200m, Eleanor Flanagon won the High Jump and Long Jump and came 2nd in the triple jump. It was the Cambridge domination on the track however which saw them home as they took eight out of eleven possible wins.

Double winner and CUAC President Matt Houlden was understandably delighted with the result, saying: "I am so proud to have been President of the club this year and this fantastic 4-0 result has been a dream come true, making a year of hard work completely worth it."

"My highlight of the match was the Men's Blues 1500m. After some surprise performances by Oxford, the team were way down on our expected points at this stage of the match and team morale was low. Jon Cook, who was due to be missing his final Varsity match due to competing in the Loughborough International the following day, stepped in and saved the day with a resounding win. Despite the fact that the overall point score was such that a win here would not have affected the overall result, the boost in morale was a key turning point and gave us a much needed boost that we could win."

For the record, Cook came 4th the following day running for England in a tactical 800m at Loughborough, while Hanna Tarver came 6th in the Women's race.

After dominating the Cross Country and Athletics seasons it is clear that Cambridge track and field has never been in finer fettle, and with faster times still to come over the summer, more of the same can be expected next year.

Nick Butler

Image - profsports.com

American Steve Dudek has been chosen as the new Boat Club President as Cambridge take the first step towards wrenching back the title they lost on Easter Sunday.

The 24-year old is studying Land Economy at St Edmund's college, and has rowed in the six seat in each of the last two Boat Races, having experienced victory in 2012 as well as this year's narrow defeat.

A former high-school American Football player who earlier attended the University of Wisconsin, Dudek becomes the ninth American to be appointed President and will take over from Olympic bronze-medallist George Nash.

He will have a hard job to secure a reversal of fortunes however, with Oxford appointing Canadian Malcolm Howard - this year's winning stroke and a double Olympic medal winner- as his opposite number.

Speaking after his election, Dudek said, "I would like to thank my teammates for giving me the opportunity to lead them for the 2014 season, and I aim to live up to the standard set by George last year, as a rower and as a leader."

"The CUBC has been an enormously influential part of my rowing career, and the presidency will undoubtedly be its highest point. I hope that my enthusiasm and commitment to my team will define my leadership, and I look forward to another hard-fought race."

Next year's contest will be the 160th edition of The Boat Race, and will take place on Sunday 6th April, with Cambridge still leading the overall series 81 to 77.

Nick Butler

ADC Theatre, Thursday 16th May , 11pm

In the wake of their successful Lent Term show, Bubblegum Party, Sian Docksey and Zoe Tomalin faced high expectations for their one-off comedy night, and they certainly delivered. A truly bizarre but hilarious opening powerpoint about flying carpets, to a soundtrack of Nicki Minaj's Starships, raised energy levels in what was already an enthusiastic crowd.

Consisting of sparkling guest comics, surreal twists and improbable carpet puns, the show was a madcap romp through a mystical world in which 'Carpet Kingdom' sponsors two young comics to sell carpet to a room full of baffled but giggling ADC regulars, a foul-mouthed peach is a fire risk, and Sian dances ballet holding a swan on a stick. As ever, our two hosts combined a masterful way with words (I think we all learned a valuable lesson in their discussion of the pros and cons of 'carpetalism' as discussed in 'Das Carpetal') and topical humour.

Though Sian and Zoe's comedy might be better suited to a full-length solo gig, allowing us to keep track of the interweavings of their recurring jokes and penchant for self-reference ('it's definitely not a made-up conceit'), it is hard to fault a show where the guest sets were also consistently great. Adrian Grey's brilliantly original and often daring one-liners were a particular hit, simultaneously eliciting spontaneous applause and horrified gasps. My personal favourite was about his ethnic minority friend; 'he doesn't like to be called black, he prefers Andrew'. Though Adrian didn't leave out disability, obscenity or third world poverty in his short set, he did it all combining a total lack of vitriol, a talent for wordplay and a disconcerting ability to circumvent expectation which won everyone over.

Oliver Marsh, also producer, gave us the most comically mature set, structured loosely around the stains on his carpet. Though a few poorly worked-in puns went down less well, tales of his adventures as a youth in search of alcohol certainly struck a chord, as did a bold moment of audience interaction (poor Millie's exams really won't seem so bad now after that hug he gave her); it was a solid farewell to his ADC career as his finals draw near.

The star line of the night came from James William Wilkinson who reminded us, having pointed out his far-from-visible leg braces, that 'being a disabled comic is a lot like being a black comic, or a lesbian comic in that... you're a comic' to raucous applause. He took us on a whistlestop tour of disabled loos 'which of course you'll never have been in', compliments he receives for his 'cool boots' from hipsters and the risks of challenging people occupying disabled parking spaces.

As a fundraiser for homeless charity FLACK, Carpet Diem! far outstripped its context, reaching moments of very high-quality hilarity, and the buoyant mood in the bar afterwards showed that the five comics had successfully, if briefly, lifted Cambridge out of exam-term blues.

Isabel Adomakoh Young

ADC Theatre, Friday 17th May , 11pm

Pierre Nouvelle is a fantastic stand-up comedian and ex-Footlighter whose presence in Cambridge has been much missed this year. This show marked his re-appearance on the Cambridge stage and, I am very glad to say, it did not disappoint. Pierre provided a solid hour of laughter that left the audience very much feeling that they had got their comedic value for money.

Pierre's show mixed observational humour with autobiographical reflection to great effect. I particularly enjoyed his routine about adverts for medication and his discussion of his briefly held job as a kung fu movie reviewer. He was even able to bring humour to topics as prosaic as buying eggs. Whilst his delivery was at times a tad unpolished, and he did occasionally seem to stumble over the transitions between jokes, this detracted little from his overall hilarity and actually served to make his stand-up feel more spontaneous and natural.

Hi set played well to the Cambridge crowd, to the extent that I think that, had there been any townies in the audience, they might have been left somewhat bewildered. However, since it was an entirely student audience, his jokes about Cambridge, exams and the uselessness of an ASNAC degree went down wonderfully. Likewise, his hilarious discussions of the conversion of the Vikings and the intricacies of ancient Welsh law were perfectly targeted to appeal.

Another great strength of this show was that it managed to almost totally avoid sex jokes and obscenities. Producing an hour of comedy without a single descent into the gutter is a true skill and one Pierre Nouvelle clearly possesses in spades.

Pierre also displayed great stage presence. He is a hugely likeable, charmingly bumbling individual who exudes friendliness and jollity; frankly, his resemblance to Hagrid is startling! He conveys the sense that he enjoys being up on stage just as much as the audience enjoys watching him.

One person speaking solidly for an hour can, all too easily, become monotonous, but Pierre headed off this risk through his lively and expressive delivery, as well as through an impressive array of funny voices and accents and some brief bouts of singing. He engaged with the audience far more than most comedians, with his show ending with a group singing of the Spiderman theme song, in Thembu.

Overall, this was an exceptionally funny show. I just had Pierre doesn't wait this long before visiting Cambridge again!

Martha Fromson

Image - ADC Theatre

Photo - ADC Theatre

ADC Theatre, Sat 18th May, 11pm

Three White Guys showcased some of Cambridge's best stand-up. It got big laughs even from the exam-stressed crowd, proving a great antidote to the monotony of revision.

Having seen two of these comedians in an awkwardly un-funny show last year, I was a bit dubious about this show but Three White Guys was highly amusing for the most part, perhaps achieved by steering-clear of the 'ha ha I'm so socially awkward' line and coming up with some more creative material.

The compere (Ian Samson) started the night well, and despite a bit of slightly forced audience participation managed to hold the show together nicely, using an 'Elton John and the recession' graph to great effect. But the star of the show for me was Ben Pope, who on the topic of skinny jeans for men asked: "Why would you vacuum pack your testicles in denim?!?" and described Dubstep as "like a heron being beaten to death by a sack of fire alarms". His material was set apart from the others by its excellent flow and fluidity; every line was well delivered, and apart from my geeky-theologian worry about the accuracy of his portrayal of Catholic salvation (!), I couldn't fault him.

However, I was somewhat less impressed by Jamie Fraser, who appeared to be the newbie of the group. He showed some real promise with some great material about twitter-stalking ("she's not really my girlfriend, but I am following her!"), but he opened up with some stuff about Thatcher's death, which he later explained was purposefully un-topical, but was just not that funny. For Fraser there were some points where it felt that the audience were laughing more at the awkwardness of people not laughing than at the material itself. But considering how much Ben Pope and Ian Samson have improved since I last saw them I think Fraser has the potential write a great set with a little more work on content.

Ken Cheng came a close second to Ben Pope on laughs; his gags about how a racist pro-life girl he was chatting up surely could no longer hold both views once "I'd put my baby inside her" was one of the standout lines of the night. He seemed to recognise that he may have peaked early with this joke in the middle of his set, but I admit there were a couple of jokes towards the end that got big laughs that I really didn't understand. I'm not sure if that was just because I'm not 'down with the kids' or because he didn't pace his jokes quite right.

Overall, Three White Guys was a fun show with lots of great lines. Although there is always room for improvement, this show fitted the bill of lightening up the exam term gloom.

Emma Weleminsky-Smith

Photo - ADC Theatre

ADC Theatre, Wed 15th May, 11pm

It's a shame that it was only a one-off show. There is a great deal of pressure on student comedians to be constantly coming up with new material on a regular basis but actually, all audiences really care about is whether they can have a good laugh at the end of a long day. Four Comedic Porpoises tried very hard to live up to both ideals. Since it was a one-off, I can't recommend that you buy tickets. That would be silly. But I can say this: it saw a handful of very funny people taking their turns on the stage for half an hour at doing what they did best, and these people are all going to appear again on the stage in the future and hopefully do similar stuff.

When Charlie Palmer stepped out onto the stage to compere this strangely-titled stand-up show, the ADC audience gave him a warm reception. His broad grin, his cheeky face, his slightly hesitant manner of delivery?as if he's just chatting to his mates, modestly sharing with them a few things he found quite funny?all make him a great act, endearing as well as funny. The porpoise routine was evidently invented for the occasion. As for the extended commentaries on Ray Mears' survival skills, a story about Dick van Dyke's bizarre dreams, an overly cheery attempt at audience participation?who cares whether they broke provocative new ground or not? They were cleverly thought through, and at any rate the crowd had a great night.

"My next point," said Henry Anderson-Elliot, "is hair." Then Facebook. Then ants, sheep, snakes. Then, I think, garden centres, and so on with a string of witty and self-deprecating observations about the world at large, often trailing off into the realm of fantasy. "Are you actually going to review this?" he bursts out. "Fucking shit." Henry mocks his 'generic other person voice', but his talent for illustrating his anecdotes with a range of silly voices is what makes his style really engaging?a little reminiscent of Michael Macintyre, without, well, being unbearably tedious like Michael Macintyre.

I found Ryan Hocking the funniest act of the show, though most of the audience were generally a little more subdued. But in this case, judging him by the audience's reaction doesn't really do Ryan justice?his jokes were maybe a bit too intellectual and too English-studenty for an ADC lateshow. (No, I never thought that was possible either.) A genuinely hilarious conversation between flatmates in the manner of epic poetry?'forsooth, who stole the milky-white rosy-fingered milk?', that sort of thing?left most a little confused, especially as the sketch dragged on and on, but at any given point a handful of people were completely breathless with laughter, and that was enough to make the routine worth while. Ryan isn't all about niche humour: he mocks Destiny's Child, laughs about his imaginary girlfriend and banters with his mate in the front row. Still, there's a very quirky mind behind this guy's stand-up.

Tweed-clad Milo Edwards, on the other hand, managed to get the whole house laughing at some very obscure jokes indeed. It helped that he started off with a number of great visual gags, which I'd better not spoil in case he wishes to repeat them (and he should do!). Even so, not many people can end their set with an extended discussion of a classical Greek verb meaning 'to thrust a radish up to fundament'?'together with its Attic contraction', as Milo hastened to add?whilst still keeping their humour accessible and completely gripping a tired lateshow audience's attention. Both Milo and Charlie made mentions of Ray Mears; several of the acts had extended discussions of cetaceans. Maybe it was an accident that these four acts fitted neatly together. Then again, maybe they did it on porpoise.

Ted Loveday