Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Live at the Apollo: Keith Barret

Rob Brydon & Jack Dee

BBC One · 2005 · 45 min

A disastrous slideshow on love hosted by London's favorite misanthrope.

For a brief period in the mid-2000s, British television’s premier stand-up showcase was hosted exclusively by Jack Dee, whose deadpan hostility served as the perfect counterweight to the theatricality of the Hammersmith Apollo stage. This 2005 episode of Live at the Apollo finds its anchor in a clash of comedic temperaments, pairing Dee’s miserable pragmatism with Rob Brydon’s most famous character creation, the pathologically optimistic cuckold Keith Barret.

By 2005, Brydon was transitioning from the claustrophobic mockumentary format of Marion & Geoff to broader stage work, and this appearance captures the character of Keith in full-blown relationship-guru mode. Rather than traditional stand-up, Brydon delivers a disastrous slideshow lecture on marriage, using Keith’s trademark unearned confidence to offer terrible advice to the London crowd. He recounts a stage-diving mishap in Folkestone where the audience parted like the Red Sea, and interrogates front-row attendees with a mix of gentle warmth and passive-aggressive judgment.

Dee bookends the show with his own signature misanthropy, delivering sets that focus on the minor indignities of British life. He details the logistics of stealing freebies from hotels to furnish his home, the absurdity of the SAS, and the grim reality of motorway service stations. It is a lean, half-hour broadcast that demonstrates the strength of the early Apollo format, before the rotating host era diluted the show’s curated feel.

The set list

2 bits

  1. Keith Barret's relationship lecture and slide show

    Delivered as an uplifting chat about marriage, Keith Barret clumsily navigates a disastrous slide show and talks with audience members about their relationships.

  2. Jack Dee's observational stand-up routines

    Jack Dee delivers stand-up routines covering rough council estates, service stations, the SAS, and furnishing his home using hotel freebies.

How it plays

Tone
Both hilarious and heartbreaking, contrasting naively well-meaning relationship advice with dark comic awkwardness.
On stage
Keith Barret is portrayed as Wales' most famous divorcee and an unnatural performer whose stage demeanor combines crashing naivety with staggering social ineptitude.
Pace
Awkward and stumbling, characterized by an inept lecture delivery and a disastrous slide presentation.
About
marriage and divorce, relationships, council estates, motorway service stations, the SAS, hotel freebies

What the critics said

Radio Times critic Sarah Dempster hailed Rob Brydon's performance as outstanding, describing the Keith Barret routine as both hilarious and heartbreaking, with Brydon successfully bringing a fully three-dimensional character to the stage.

In the room: Described as having the audience in stitches during Keith Barret's inept presentation.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedy.co.uk, bbc.co.uk, thetvdb.com, watch.plex.tv, tvmaze.com, imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

The second series of the BBC comedy showcase Live at the Apollo (originally titled Jack Dee Live at the Apollo), where host Jack Dee performed stand-up segments and introduced guest comedians in front of a live audience.

Details

Released
Taped
Hammersmith Apollo, London
Runtime
45 min
Where
BBC One
Director
Paul Wheeler
Topics

More from Rob Brydon & Jack Dee

If you liked this