Toby Hadoke has somehow managed to find time to watch TV while touring his long-running hit show “Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf”. Not that he has been vegetating in front of the goggle box, oh no, he has been penning his very own Points of View.
The resultant show is partly a biography of this self-confessed telly addict, illuminated by the flickering light of TV shows of the last half-century. Moreover, it’s a plea to us all to treasure Auntie Beeb as a family member like no other.
It’s a journey through a rose-tinted TV screen to the days when Children’s BBC didn’t need the epithet; a time when simple shows like Take Hart engendered a healthy respect for patience, disappointment and self-worth. As such it probably works best for the 30-40 somethings in the audience, but he does have a device to provide a reference point for the more youthful. He rails against the mollycoddling of this younger generation, the dumbing down of programming and the instant gratification of the “hyper web”.
Standing Canute like against a rising tide of reality TV he is pulled between traditionalism and anarchy, desiring those certain standards embodied by the BBC and at the same time relishing its anachronistic ability to make shows “by a man in a shed”.
The show is fast paced as he channel hops to make his points in a style which is Griff Rhys Jones meets Boris Johnson. I only say this to play on his hate of TV shows devised in the X meets X way. As he develops the themes he moves more fully into HD rant (a style loved by his fans) but the latter half of the show is less assured and feels like there might be just enough material to stretch to the final credits but not a second episode.
With a before-the-watershed warmness, it’s not side-splittingly funny, but it is more amusing than anything you will see on the telly.
Show Times
5-29 (not 18) August 2010, 6.55pm.
Ticket prices
£9 (£8), £10 (£9) and £6.50 (16-17 and 23-24)