Elizabeth & Raleigh : Late but Live
*****
by ANDRZEJ LUKOWSKI - Metro - Sunday, August 10, 2008

If last year's Stewart Lee-penned historic character comedy Johnson And Boswell was a ramshackle, late-night treat, its successor is sadly rather closer to that inadvisable end of the evening kebab.

Miles Jupp and a dragged-up, white-faced Simon Munnery return to play Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth I, but they're not really afforded the chance to show the odd-couple chemistry of last year. It's not a case of bad acting; rather a script that's not a whole lot more than a slew of period-themed gags, puns and wordplay of decidedly mixed quality.

There's jokes about potatoes, the Spanish, the Armada, and by and large they're pretty chuckle-worthy; but we've all seen the second series of Blackadder. Lee-esque touches are present throughout – a cockeyed engagement with actual facts, a rather peculiar Jimmy Carr-based slideshow segment – but it doesn't really add up to much. Maybe he was aiming for a knockabout, late-night looseness, but the most frustrating thing is that very occasionally it threatens to engage with the roots of Englishness. You can't argue the talent of all involved, but it simply feels like a rush job.

Until Aug 25 (not 13), Udderbelly's Pasture (V300), 10.35pm. www.underbelly.co.uk