Review by Julian Hall

It might have already felt, in recent days, as if the apocalypse was coming but Mick Ferry reminds us that we should be putting the actual date in our diaries as 21st December 2012, when Mayan prophecies dictate that the sands of time eventually run out for us.

It so happens that his girlfriend 's birthday falls on the same day and so, apart from moving celebrations to the night before, it has set Ferry thinking about contingency plans and how impending doom has prioritised the size of his worries. It’s an easy and familiar premise giving an already comfortable performer like Ferry bags of room for manoeuvre.

The 42-year-old starts by re-capping on some of the nightmare visions his generation faced including the Cold War, where we had only four minutes to the end of the world, and the one-woman Armageddon that was Margaret Thatcher.

For some in his audience this means nothing, although on a previous night at 19-year old girl reassures Ferry that she studied Thatcher's reign in her history class. Ferry duly feels old (as then do I) and proceeds to age himself further later on with a list of indie legends that constitute his music taste.

Albums from artists like The Fall, The Smiths, Depeche Mode and New Order would no doubt feature in Ferry's bunker, the one he will be building to survive doomsday, were it survivable. He asks us what items we would take in and finds another youngster volunteering ‘laptop’, so we all have a good old laugh at the idea of finding wi-fi in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

This end of days extravaganza is itself ended with a gameshow, introduced by a voiceover from none other than E4's legend Peter Dixon. There's a round on euphemisms, but however playful it is, it's a bit of a cop-out, really.

Review date: 14 Aug 2011
Reviewed by: Julian Hall