Brilliant but frustrating sketch troupe

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The trouble is, they have never quite pulled off the outstanding show that they are capable of.

Take this latest series of sketches, which are all affectionately themed around the movers and shakers and social mores of Edwardian England.

There are some ace ideas here; a scene in which an upper-class Edwardian ma'am tries to understand where the money lies in jazz-funk in a conversation with 'Lord' Jamiroquai, for example, is priceless.

So too is the sketch in which Captain Oates's famous and enigmatic last words aren't taken seriously by his naively cheery South Pole comrades.

But others are missed opportunities - more of Charles Rennie Mackintosh as a superhero please - or they inexplicably deflate.

And when things stray from simplicity the show experiences some significant lulls: songs don't pack the same punch that they have in the past and a sketch where an audience member is pulled up to be little more than an innocent bystander is frankly bemusing.

Still, this was first night. Perhaps by the run's end it will get the tweaks and edits it needs. Then the Johnsons may, at last, have a show that doesn't come with a slight tinge of disappointment.

Until Aug 11, Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street WC2, Tue to Sat 9.30pm, Sun 7.30pm, £15, £12 concs. Tel: 0870 060 1742. Tube: Covent Garden

The Ornate Johnsons' Edwardian Spectacular
Arts Theatre
Great Newport Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 7JB