Outsider

Sarah Millican spent years establishing herself as an indoor person, so her fourth tour uses a move to the English countryside primarily to explain why she hates nature. The rural idyll turns out to mean septic tanks, power cuts solved by burning unwanted scented candles, and the persistent terror that a rustling bush is an owl rather than her husband’s asthma.

Recorded at the Brighton Dome in June 2016 during a 170-date tour, the show finds Millican operating at the commercial peak that put her DVD atop the UK comedy charts. By that point, she had settled into a comfortable position as an arena headliner, balancing a chatty Geordie delivery against graphic physical routines.

The outdoors only accounts for part of the set. She covers medical advice for irritable bowel syndrome, bath products that irritate sensitive anatomy, and the modern obsession with the thigh gap, which she notes used to be diagnosed as rickets. There is also an extended reflection on school bullies, capped by her sharp response when one of them sent a friendly message decades later.

Contemporary reviews noted the material stayed firmly in saucy postcard territory, with The Guardian pointing out that the rural premise served largely as a vehicle for frank discussions of bodily functions.