Newsrevue 30th Anniversary

Good evening. This is the 6 o clock news. The headline for today: NewsRevue has returned to the Edinburgh Fringe for a record 30th year. The show, which features skits and sketches based on recent news events, is currently playing in the sound sapping Pleasance Over the Road and is already ripping into our politicians, celebrities and public figures to audience enjoyment and acclaim.Having given us behind the scene footage of George Bush and Osama Bin Laden in past years, this year’s entourage summarise some equally hard-hitting stories. Joanna Lumley is just desperate for the Ghirkas to enter her, the cabinet reshuffle was really just a game of musical chairs and all David Cameron actually wants to do is “ride his bicycle”. We now pass over to our analyst, John C Kennedy.“Thank you. I think there can be no doubting that there was a huge amount of effort and energy put into this year’s billing. The real question though is whether this effort will convince the voters that this is a top show again. Of course, being a revue show means that the material at their disposal is second to none; they can take apart whoever they want and the only major battles to contend with are how to present that material and what to leave out on account of it being distasteful. Don’t get me wrong, much of this presentation prompts a chuckle or two, but on several occasions there were sketches which were either too long, chose the wrong direction to go down on a story, or milked a joke beyond submission – the third reference to Jade Goody almost took a leaf out of Max Clifford’s book (although he would have put her into another 10 sketches, made an emotional speech about her life and lit up with glee as he saw another million pounds added to his bank account)”The glory days of Alastair McGowan, and more recently Pippa Evans, have not yet returned to NewsRevue, but despite its faults, this is a tried and tested formula and for members of the public who want a guaranteed laugh or two, this show has a clear appeal. I have to say that I’m also a fan of anybody who reinvents “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” as “Shitty Shitty Railways” or for that matter any references to Christiano Ronaldo as “a cheap tranny bitch”.