Live & Unleashed - But Naturally Cautious

Andy Parsons has always sounded like a man trying to explain basic civic sanity through a megaphone at a provincial train station. What distinguishes this hour is the way he points that incredulous cadence at his own body and anxieties before aiming it at the front pages. He admits he is terrible at being an adult man, dreads heights, and frets about dementia tests and chickenpox parties, temporarily abandoning the panel-show bravado to sit at the back of the stage and contemplate the futility of getting older.

Filmed at the Theatre Royal in Margate in 2015, the set coincided with Parsons stepping down from BBC Two’s Mock the Week after a decade in the regular lineup. On tour, free from buzzer rounds and thirty-second edits, he stretches out. The second half pivots back into the topical territory he built a career on, touching on UKIP, male contraception, BOGOF promotions, and the muddy concept of modern British values, before closing with an awkward instruction for audience members to hold hands with whoever is sitting next to them.