How can a full house of adults be entertained for an hour by a couple of grey socks in a tartan Punch & Judy tent? Ask Kev Sutherland, the writer and performer, who returns for forth year with the bug eyed characters. Theres something so simple, so endearing and yet so funny about taking innocent sock puppets and creating an adult world for them. This year, once again, the socks are seeking fame and a tv show, which leads them to explore different tv genres in an attempt to sell their talents to any programme commissioners who may be in the audience. One sock takes this task very seriously, while the other undermines him with wilful misunderstandings and a series of terrible puns on the theme of tv show titles. Sutherland gives convincing life to the socks and I am captivated for the full hour. Gags come at you thick and fast, and the show never lets up pace, with costume changes and audience interaction. They manage to pull off a parody of a BBC costume drama (think about it socks, costume drama, how can that work?), explore societys obsession with paedophilia, and punctuate the whole show with songs from the guitar playing sock. It is during one of these songs (a short, but brilliant take on a Lou Reed track) that, for the first time this Fringe, I experienced streaming tears of laughter and almost fell off my chair clutching my aching sides. This experience is repeated when the socks get their tv genres mixed up and present a cooking-gardening-superman show.The audience about half of whom have seen the socks in previous years - clearly adored On the Telly. The sheer silliness may not be for everyone, but if you are looking for an hour of joyful exuberance, go see.
