Punt and Dennis, Nottingham Playhouse

This show felt catapulted direct from a Footlights revue as the boys reprised their trademark roles of Steve Punt as the straight man – with Hugh Dennis amusing the sell-out crowd with his knockabout approach.

It was for all the world a Radio 4-style audience in on this wet Friday night, and Punt and Dennis may have been surprised to see so much grey hair (or no hair) in their demographic.

But with radio's The Now Show their main satirical vehicle and Hugh Dennis involved in gentler televisual comedy pursuits, perhaps they come to expect that.

Clipboard-holding Steve ran through their carefully-chosen topics in time-honoured style as the perfect foil for Hugh's commentary. There was a plethora of digital television channels to describe, such as the curiously named ITV2+1 – surely that's just ITV3? A smattering of Jimmy Savile jokes “Half my act's gone”, says Hugh – while softly singing Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Yewtree.

Easier to identify with what people are overheard saying while shopping at Waitrose: “Do we need parmesan for both houses, darling?”, or how we're suckered into buying from the shopping channels when we get home tipsy.

The duo were here three years ago and while it's nice to enjoy some of their best-loved material again, there was a lingering feeling that too much of this current show was reworked.

We'd seen before Hugh asking us to laugh in the style of a pirate, or a Frenchman, and while World of Wine was a superb ending to the evening, it felt like another digital channel repeat.

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, Nottingham Playhouse

By Patrick Astill

"Famous Grouse? What did he do?"

The triumphant reprise of Punt and Dennis's World of Wine sketch from the 90s provided a perfect end to the evening, if a little untypical compared with what went before.

Steve Punt and "TV's Hugh Dennis" were at the Playhouse and back in Nottingham for the first time in four years.

This show packed them in for an absolute sell-out. And it was clear to see why.

Intelligent (if sometimes obvious) humour, running gags, a nod to their past and cultural and political observations ran through from start to finish.

They even suggested they might be still relevant in this day and age because the country was run by a double act.

Their set was based on the nuances of consumer surveys, the pair returning to the theme every now and again by gauging opinions from the audience or using the crowd to reinforce their point.

A request for us all to laugh like pirates got the desired response, and the pair tell us we've not been reading the papers or we'd know that most pirates were now Somali.

We're low on fuel and a sign tells us there's petrol at one mile and 23 miles… which do we go for? You get the picture.

A knock at Newark, a nod to the rivalry with Derby, both socially and with the football, helped settle the duo into an evening in Nottingham.

Formerly of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and well known for radio's Now Show, the pair work off each other brilliantly.

Steve's constant chatter, building the argument and setting the scene to ease in Hugh's knockabout and less than subtle antics. And yet when the roles were reversed their comedy achieved the same result.

Dog and Trumpet? Make sure you catch them soon – it'll all make sense.