I have to admit I've not really followed Mr Cryers radio career so I had no idea who Colin Sell is and to be honest when I sat down and took a look at the stage and saw a grand piano standing there, I was a little confused as to what was going on. When a pianist came on stage (who I later learned was in fact Colin Sell) and started playing background music I was beginning to wonder what sort of show I had come to see as it was beginning to look like a piano recital and when Colin started singing, I really began to wonder what I had let myself in for...
To make my concerns even worse, when Barry Cryer came on to the stage he too started singing which really made me wonder what on earth was going on!
It wasn't long before the singing stopped and the show turned in to what I had hoped, lots of funny tales and jokes about people Barry Cryer had met (and sometimes written for) over his many years in show business. There were lots of 'old' jokes that we'd all pretty much heard before, time and time again and it was these jokes and stories I had come to hear, as a lot of them are jokes we've all taken for granted and forget that someone wrote them in the first place, and in many cases it was Barry Cryer who was part of a team of people that wrote them. :)
All the singing wasn't my cup of tea, but it was soon explained that Barry and Colin have been working together on the radio in this way for many, many years and a lot of the audience members were familiar with their work together and seemed to enjoy it.
All-in-all I have to say it was a very different and mostly enjoyable night out - the last of a dying breed you might say as modern comedians use observational comedy which when I was growing up was called Alternative Comedy but it's now so widespread that it's the norm so is just, well, comedy.
Although he's from the same era as Ken Dodd, he wasn't quite up to that standard for me, but it was still a good night out so I've given this show a well deserved 3 stars.
