Partridge in a bare tree

Coogan's first live tour in 10 years is pretty much what it says on the tin. The less successful characters - Paul and Pauline Calf, Duncan Thickett and Tommy Saxondale - make their appearances in the first half, which is indeed very patchy. The show is transformed in the second half when Alan Partridge bounds on with a great cry of 'A-ha!' and the audience visibly revives. Partridge may have reinvented himself as a motivational speaker, but he has not lost his old talent for unintentional offence. 'Nothing that's broken can't be fixed,' he pronounces, before adding: 'That doesn't apply to lightbulbs, Amstrad hi-fis or hymens.' The highlight is the curious epilogue, in which Coogan - dressed as Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins - performs a song entitled 'Everyone's a Bit of a Cunt Sometimes'. This acknowledges Coogan's tabloid reputation, half-confirming with a cheeky wink the allegations about cocaine and strippers, but exculpating himself on the grounds that, well - no one's perfect.