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With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun
Babbo
Film
This is a film with beautiful performances and a visual style that urges you towards reflection
Bright Star
Theatre
Although the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops off
Seize The Day
I loved this film from start to finish. Take the girlfriend, tell your mum - I'd see it again tomorrow and will buy the dvd.
I saw this last night and can't remember the last time I was so moved in the theatre.
I have been to many of London's so-called best Japanese restaurants and none have been as good as the food that I've had at Aqua Kyoto
London,
Bruce Dessau's rating
Reader rating
Description: The former Never Mind The Buzzcocks star offers his take on the world.
Trains: Tube: Piccadilly Circus 
Phone: 0870950 0915
Website: www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk
On paper it seemed a great idea. Take Bill Bailey’s 2007 Tinselworm tour that was never quite big enough for the enormodomes it played and put it into Shaftesbury Avenue for a month.
And on stage it is not such a bad idea either. But somehow the shortcomings in arenas have been replaced by a different set of shortcomings.
Bailey is not so much a stand-up comedian as an erudite, amiable bag of contradictions. Where others look tubbier on telly, he looks slightly portlier live. Not exactly Buddha-like in his baggy black shirt, maybe Buddha-lite. His material is taut and flabby, too. Often utterly brilliant, yet it flits around, never quite establishing a theme.
Closer scrutiny reveals lows along with highs. Sometimes his musical doodles feel like padding, at other times — his funked-up Dad’s Army theme, for instance — they are inspired. His dotty filmed inserts are hilarious physical comedy footnotes. Frequent name-dropping — Pynchon, Kant, Baudrillard — suggests a deep thinker.
If there is a motif, it is Bailey’s contempt for global corporations, skewering banks, businesses, anyone in suits.
The problem with revivals is that parts are inevitably dated. The James Blunt and Hurricane Katrina gags should go now and the Bush gags should go soon. Yet it is a testament to Bailey’s immense talent and likeability that between the dips there are still plenty of thrills.
Old Bailey certainly, but the verdict is much more hit than miss.
Until 22 December (0844 482 5130, www.gielgud-theatre.com).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
