Charlotte McDougall and Susie Donkin are clearly two very well-brought-up ladies.
While other female double acts, from Mel and Sue to Hudson and Pepperdine, go for the surreal and the downright foul-mouthed, this twosome takes sketch comedy back to a politer age, when a besuited pianist played elegantly during the costume changes.
After a wag barked "Joyce Grenfell" during an audience participation moment, I felt like packing up my notepad. My work was done for me.
Yet there is more here than mere comedy of good manners. McDougall, for all her Grenfellish gawkiness, is a talented physical comic, perfectly capturing the stupidity of modern dances in one scene, stiff and military in another. Donkin, about half McDougall's height, gives as good as she gets in the silliness stakes, donning a blatantly bogus moustache to play the nerdy husband in a running gag set at the Chelsea Flirting Academy.
The trouble is that they don't have the material to stretch their talents. Not everyone has to be Chris Morris, but this is far too unchallenging. A hackneyed wordplay routine involving the names of sea creatures - "I had my hair cut behind Charing Crustacean" - suggested that the spirit of Ronnie Barker was alive and whale. You see, anyone can do it.
As the show entered the final furlong, my wandering eyes spotted foraging chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in the audience. Maybe he could help them out. McDougall and Donkin might bloom if only they got some dirt under their nails.
McDougall & Donkin
