Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Edinburgh Festival is a potential match made in Heaven for the enjoyable combination of dexterous word play and musical accompaniment that is in the hands of Philip Pope and Rory McGrath in this year’s cool and witty Bridge Over Troubled Lager.   

The two comedians work together goes back so far that their comfortable approach to each other feels as though it pre-dates the time when Cornwall was annexed into the English culture. Such is the command of language at their disposal that the audience inside the Assembly Rooms were treated to a show in which the expected may have been seen coming just before the punch line but were nevertheless enthralled at the spectacle in front of them.

Proud Cornishman Rory McGrath and lyrical comedy virtuoso took the audience through various music routines, some that at times were slightly close to the knuckle; however what is an Edinburgh Fringe without the knuckle scratching the comedic underbelly at times, but at all times just good fun.

Whilst Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel might despair at the choice of title for the production, in terms of comedy it was perfect; alcohol being at times, the solver and cause of many a problem. From Philip Pope’s wonderfully amusing send-off of Bob Dylan to Rory McGrath’s perfect French song, through the Metallica/Opera hybrid and a song about the C-Word, including a certain Cameron and Clegg, the two performers had the crowd leaving the venue in great spirits ahead of the final weekend of what has been reportedly a tremendous season of comedy, music, dance, theatre and satire.

To see Rory McGrath perform on stage is always a blessing but it is in the adulation placed at the feet of Mr. Pope in which the audience’s majority of applause was placed and with good reason. Mr. Pope remains one of Britain’s finest comedic lyricists and to have him in Edinburgh is a bonus worth living in.

Ian D. Hall