One looks like a children's TV presenter: all big beaming smiles and thumbs ups, with show tunes always just bubbling under. The other? How can I put this? Well, he looks like a horse. That has learnt to speak. But, and I must qualify this here, he is, in the immortal words of Father Ted, 'a lovely horse' (although he's not mine).
Dickie (SamCam-faced Richard Foster-King) and Dave (West End-hoofer David McMullan) are an odd couple, but as odd couples are a comedy staple, we won't worry too much about that. That they don't fit physically doesn't hamper their on stage chemistry which is rather splendid.
Tea for Two, a sketch show that's 'not exactly ghetto,' is however bloody funny in parts. There's an old gag running through it; Dave has SSTD – Spontaneous Show Tunes Disorder - whereby he will sing at the drop of a hat. Yes, Python have done it, Morcambe and Wise have done it and, well, every man and his dog have done it, but it's still a funny one and I was quite content to sit through it again.
The running gags are the weak point in the show. Quaint and cuddly, but not very funny, they're easily eclipsed by Dickie's turn as a driving test examiner obsessed with horror films, all swivel-eyed lunacy mixed with hand-on-knee chumminess, and a show-stopping 'A Whole New World' skit which sees Ariel and Belle's sapphic longing for something 'that's against the Disney law.'
Writer Jo Davies stays a little too near the comedy centre ground with the script she's handed the boys. There are too many clichéd situations that have already been milked to death. She steers clear of the disparities in Dickie and Dave's physical appearances which is admirably nice of her in one way, but a missed opportunity in another. It would have been the best running gag ever, really.
The quiz show ending has been so done to death that I was sick of it before it even started, but then a song brightened the proceedings again and I forgave them their 'it's not our face, it's your face' catchphrase hell.
If this show was 60% music and 40% skit, with the running gags taken out, it'd be 50% better. As it is, it's certainly worth a look.
