Colin Hoult @ Pleasance Courtyard

Colin Hoult plays Anna Mann, an ageing starlet with a wealth of husbands and escapades in hand. With a good few Fringe notches on her belt, it is revealed that 2022’s show is to be her last. Anna is dying, causing the hour to unfold in a biopic-like fashion.

“Catch the stick, Anna”, her sister cries on Skegness beach in a spot-on Nottingham brogue, as Anna opens the door on her earliest memories. We go from an exclusively egg-selling sandwich shop, past lechy directors to womanising Irish B-list action heroes, all with Anna by our side. It’s built on underdog cliché with some bawdiness thrown in and the audience unhinges their collective jaw to lap it up. The relationships have plaster-cast arcs but it’s the tenderness between sisters Anna and Jane which ground the hour – it’s very sweetly drawn and adds another string to Hoult’s bow.

There’s some brilliant, memorable lines (“the creme de menthe of audiences”) and it clips along at a fair pace, with little dead air between each punchline. But it all just seems a bit... safe? A bit trad? (Although if it means comedy like this is more accessible, brilliant!) It just sticks out like a sore thumb amongst both character acts and those talking earnestly about neurodiversity.

Ultimately The Death of... is compact with a large gag count, but the payoff and pathos of its ending isn’t the resounding success it could be. Yet, thanks to Hoult’s knack for powerhouse punchlines, we’re excited to see what he goes on to next.

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Colin Hoult: The Death of Anna Mann, Pleasance Courtyard (Beneath), until 28 Aug, 9.10pm, sold out, returns only