Review by Steve Bennett

It was perhaps inevitable that an act as energetic, puerile and ridiculously stupid as Big and Daft would eventually produce a Christmas show.

Their infectious brand of silliness always had the spirit of pantomime, and with this typically lively show, they unashamedly play up to that childish sense of fun.

And there's nothing like juvenile no-brained humour to get an audience cheering heroes, booing baddies and screaming out 'behind you' with gleeful abandon.

The cast, too have great fun with the format, happily breaking out of character to berate a colleague or goad the punters.

Yet somehow, about halfway though, this great locomotive of festive entertainment seems to run out of steam.

All the larking about gets to a point where it undermines the narrative, slight as it is, and becomes a little self-indulgent (with guest star Adam Bloom being the main culprit).

There's also the pressing need to actually finish the show, and when the comics do go through the motions of the necessary third act and tie up the story, it's without the zeal of earlier sketches.

The effect is of a show running in reverse, starting with huge bundles of energy and gradually petering out - leaving a sort of Boxing Day anticlimax that no one would aim for.

But it was fun while it lasted.

Review date: 1 Jan 2001
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett