Funny old codgers with vintage class

Barry Cryer, 72 this week, is a comedy legend who has written jokes for everyone from Tommy Cooper to Morecambe & Wise, and forged his own, equally impressive performing career. He has also been a panellist on Radio 4's I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue for 30 years.

Ronnie Golden (born Tony de Meur) was frontman for late Seventies band The Fabulous Poodles; nowadays, he blends music and stand-up as well as performing with his R&B band Ronnie & The Rex.

A Kick Up The Arts is a 75-minute whirlwind of songs and gags by two codgers who wholeheartedly embrace the unavoidable truth that middle age is upon them (or past them; as Cryer says, "how many 144-year-old men do I know?").

Not many performers would write a song about Stannah stairlifts in the style of those "teenage rebel dies in a car crash" Fifties hits - and fewer still could perform it as skilfully as this duo does.

Meanwhile, strings of deliberately old-school gags leave you wide open for the clever slowburners.

Cryer and Golden prove it's a mistake ever to underestimate a showbusiness codger, no matter how decrepit he may appear.

Mon-Wed, 6-7 Great Newport Street WC2 (0870 060 1742), 7.30pm, £15, £12.50 concs. Tube: Leicester Sq

A Kick Up The Arts
Arts Theatre
Great Newport Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 7JB