Terry Saunders

It's a neat reviewer's trick to begin by usurping the performer's opening line, providing of course, that said quip is a real belter. But eschewing loud music, flashy lighting or acerbic openings, Terry Saunders wanders ever so slightly shambolically onstage sucking a hoodie cord. It's an introduction which passes without spectacle; it's refreshing and it's awfully endearing.

This very much sets the tone of a performance which feels little like a stand-up set. Quite literally, in fact: Saunders sits on a stool for the entire performance – the consequence, so we are told, of a foot injury sustained while jumping for joy. Providing one can expel images of stool-bound boy bands, Saunders' sit-down style of comedy works well as a format through which to probe the faintly cutesy subject of missed connections – the 'I saw you' adverts which range from wonderfully tender to plain weird.

However, this isn't quite observational comedy. There are indeed a few jokes at the expense of real examples of the ads, but Saunders' performance is very much one of storytelling. One suspects, at times, that an armchair and wood fire might be more appropriate than a stool but, budgets being as they are, the Ikea bill obviously couldn't stretch. Saunders spins two yarns: the first is a personal tale, both touching and cathartic; the second a surreal story concerning a missed connections respondent and, bizarrely enough, an optician. It's Jackanory with jokes.

But like Jackanory, Missed Connections is a fairly twee, comfortable affair – a yarn, not a yank at the system. Thoroughly enjoyable, nonetheless, and it's a measure of the tight structure of Saunders' story format that it could be ruined here with a spoiler. But that's one for another chapter.