It has been more than three years since The Knitwit was announced, so Jon Richardson admires the admin skills of anyone who has still made it to the right theatre at the right time. This is a comic who values organisational nous.
Not that the first half necessarily feels like it’s been so long in the making, as he simply, if amusingly, recounts stunts you might already have seen him undertake on A League Of Their Own, such as facing Freddie Flintoff’s bowling or trying to score a conversion a Twickenham. He’s not, of course, a traditionally sporty guy, so it’s dependable fish-out-of-water stuff.
The showbiz anecdote nature of this section is spiced up with some uncharacteristically savage attacks on celebrities. It’s often for no real reason, playing up to the fact that ‘petty’ is a less attractive aspect of his pernicketiness. However, in Ant & Dec’s case, he has just cause in sniping at their greed in advertising a bank when they’re already super-wealthy.
Such flecks of grit stop the first half from being quite so cosy as his trademark cardigan, although it remains a largely gentle, soft-hitting affair, with only the memories of childhood PE lessons – and a special awakening – proving memorable
In the second half, domestic tensions prove a much richer seam, even if many fans will have already seen the fictionalised version of his marriage on TV. His wife, Lucy Beaumont, writes Dave’s fake reality show Meet The Richardsons, so this, perhaps, is his right to reply.
As his fastidiousness butts up against her more laissez-faire attitude, he wonders whether opposites really do attract. The Nespresso-style coffee machine is a particular flashpoint, as is giving their daughter a banana she won’t eat. Think of the food waste!
As he turns 40, he says his young daughter has provided an antidote to his buttoned-down tendencies. It’s hard to be too much of a stickler when you have a toddler, and his sign-off routine here has a focus on his bumhole that he admits he’d probably not have done without her.
It may not be the most sophisticated of subjects, but that it plays against his usually repressed ways – ‘anal’ in an entirely different way – gives it a boost. And he does nail the unedifying topic with precision and skill.
Richardson has such a well-defined persona of grouchy pedantry that even with this slight expansion of his comic horizons, The Knitwit can feel as safe as his risk-averse image.
But then a savvy bit of writing will cut through, such as the delightful image of him delving deeper into the digital channels late at night only to be confronted with a ‘ younger and less competent’ version of himself in ever-ageing repeats. He’s undoubtedly competent now, dependably, relateably funny… even if some of his grumbles would benefit from a little more bite.
• Jon Richardson: The Knitwit is on tour until May. Jon Richardson tour dates.
