Greg Davies, Leicester Square Theatre - review - Comedy - Arts

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Highlights included a section on childhood nicknames and the way that minor incidents make sobriquets stick forever. Davies gleefully recalled a schoolfriend still known as "Baghdad" because his father gave him a new briefcase three decades ago. The imposing star was a teacher pre-fame and neatly evoked the classroom's pleasure and pain, most vividly in a tale of a pupil dubbed "Satnav" because of her absent sense of direction.

Home life was fertile territory too, with Davies père and his penchant for pranks dominating the second half. As proceedings reached a climax a garnish of serious reflection was added to the smutty ribaldry. Even the lager-fuelled Saturday nighters sat silently as the boisterous panel game stalwart talked movingly of his mother's heart bypass and his father's distress, before undercutting the tension with a dynamite punchline.

It is simple to see why this show is so popular. The genuinely true tall tales plus silly gags equal big laughs, while the subtexts of familial devotion and the importance of seizing the moment give it emotional pulling power. Towering stuff.

Greg Davies
Leicester Square Theatre
WC2H 7BX