The Impenetrable Click

Amateurish but amiable, The Impenetrable Click consists of two Scotsmen, an Aussie refugee, and the girl out the Dark Crystal. Their multimedia show starts with fuzzy blue bird puppet Vladimir Schlenkoff who does a nice line in Aleksandr the Meerkat impersonation, but trawls out some pretty outdated USSR jokes, only amusing to people who remember watching the Berlin Wall being demolished on Newsround. However, the audience are benevolent and smile and clap over the annoying music between skits, many of which seem overly fixated on pies and potatoes.

There are some good ideas in there. The Prancing Ninnies sketch, revolving around extras who randomly burst into song in musicals, raised some honest chuckles, and the film about the Scotsman (who worked in a pie factory) digging to Australia had its heart in the right place. The real problem was delivery. More panto than anything else, they really need to buck up their energy levels a bit. The cardboard robot guest star, Deep Chuckle, is a cute idea, but channelling Steven Hawkings was never going to make for snappy dialogue. Likeable but lacklustre.