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I was very keen to see this - Hamilton and Hardy are a fantastic combination on The News Quiz (which reminds me, I forgot to do the Alan Coren stuff on Radio 4 last week), I have fond memories of Drop the Dead Donkey and enjoy Old Harry's Game. (Revolting People leaves me cold - as does the current Punt and Dennis written political "comedy".) Hamilton is a great writer and performer, even in situations where it appears he is improvising. But I suspect what he is doing then is reacting.
In the end, he was simply too bitty - in the first half, members of the audience would draw topics out of a hat, and he would talk amusingly about them. Religion. Sport. Science. At the end he asked for questions to be written down during the interval, and he would answer then in the second half. Of the dozen or so, he only really answered three. The News Quiz clearly proves that reactions are only as good as what you are reacting against. Part of his act he did lying on his back. (Has he got a bad back? Was it a joke?) At the end he sang, but not badly enough.
I couldn't help but feel he hadn't found himself the right format. I also feel I was coloured in my reactions by having to give a Paddington Bear Hard Stare to the person behind me who looked like she was going to offer commentary throughout ("My friend works in Poundland"). Funny, but not funny enough.
In the end, he was simply too bitty - in the first half, members of the audience would draw topics out of a hat, and he would talk amusingly about them. Religion. Sport. Science. At the end he asked for questions to be written down during the interval, and he would answer then in the second half. Of the dozen or so, he only really answered three. The News Quiz clearly proves that reactions are only as good as what you are reacting against. Part of his act he did lying on his back. (Has he got a bad back? Was it a joke?) At the end he sang, but not badly enough.
I couldn't help but feel he hadn't found himself the right format. I also feel I was coloured in my reactions by having to give a Paddington Bear Hard Stare to the person behind me who looked like she was going to offer commentary throughout ("My friend works in Poundland"). Funny, but not funny enough.
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