Johnson and Boswell: Late but Live - Wednesday 19 March, Tron Theatre

Cracking wise about everything from Jordan to "comparing stools with Gillian McKeith," James Boswell is as refreshingly funny a compere as any comedy headliner would wish to have open for him. The crowd - responding to his cherubic smile, easy enthusiasm and crackling wit - laughed loud and long at Boswell's clever anachronisms. Serving as an introductory act for his esteemed traveling companion Dr Samuel Johnson, Boswell (Miles Jupp) bows and effuses and makes nice, all in the name of his erstwhile hero. When Dr Johnson (Simon Munnery) does appear, he is imperious, high-handed, dismissive and cruel. In other words, the ultimate insult comic.

Johnson and Boswell; Late but Live tells the story of the good lexicographer and his biographer as they traipse through Boswell's native Scotland on an 18th century book tour. Dreamed up by the ubiquitous Iain Gillie and devised by Stewart Lee, the show is basically a perfect comic celebration of literacy, language and lunacy. Jupp is a grinningly joyful purveyor of all things Johnson, and, with no hint of irony, conveys one man's unadulterated admiration for the other. Munnery is all condescension and scathing sesquipedalianism, and the two deliver the terrifically odd and hilariously unhinged script like a pair of quarrelling old biddies. The writing is perfectly paired with their abilities, and the script - with one of the best cop-out endings in theatre - is perhaps the best part of the whole excellent endeavour. A silly, irreverent, intelligent, inelegant, fantastic show.