DVD review by Steve Bennett

Comedians and orchestras don’t always mix, as Barry Humphries’s recent abomination at the Royal Albert Hall conclusively proved. And while Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide To The Orchestra at the same venue is considerably more entertaining than that, there’s still a sense that behind all the virtuoso musicianship, the comedy component is relatively weak. It’s as if all the effort has gone into the arrangement of the score, with the gags only an afterthought.

The process seems to run along the lines of: We’ve got an orchestra – let’s get them to play the Emmerdale theme! Why? Oh, we’ll think of something later… So at times it feels like one of those populist concerts when the LSO play the hits of Queen – simultaneously disappointing fans of both classical music and Freddie Mercury.

Here he has the BBC Concert Orchestra, well-drilled under the baton of composer Anne Dudley, perform the funky soundtrack of a Seventies cop thriller and the foreboding theme tune of the NBC Nightly News, before imagining the dramatic swirling instrumentals that ought to underpin an EastEnders episode. Bailey gives a typically rambling narration to much of this, but the jokes are thin on the ground.

Occasionally Chris De Burgh’s bearded nemesis does he provide the guide to the orchestra promised by the title, a much wittier and wryer commentary than the one that accompanies the similarly-titled Benjamin Britten composition. While he also offers an occasional take on Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals idea, with locusts and jellyfish being depicted in his Cavalcade Of The Unloved.

Moments such as this, where the comedy and the music work in, erm, concert, provide the highlights – even if there probably only a limited number of jokes to be had about ‘backhanded oboe compliments’.

Bailey’s mash-ups are always a delight, especially the hitherto under-explored influence of Cockney knees-up music on the classical canon.

He also reprises his brilliant reimagining of the Doctor Who theme as a Jaques Brel jazz number. But funny as it is, it doesn’t really gain anything from having a full orchestra behind him, nor does a big-budget production of his spoof rock opera Insect Nation.

This DVD is nicely shot to give a sense of the scale of the orchestra and the magnificence of the venue, yet it seems like a show that’s been recorded for posterity too early, before it’s fully evolved into what it ought to be. But when you need the Royal Albert Hall and a 72-piece orchestra to accommodate your idea, the opportunities for trying it out and honing the gags are a lot more limited than for a one-man stand-up set.

Main feature: 109 mins
Extras: 17mins of backstage footage
Released by: Universal Pictures, November 23
Price: £19.99. Click here to buy from Amazon at £12.88

Here is a trailer:

Published: 25 Nov 2009