Ornate but inoffensive

When one member of a sketch troupe pulls out of a run at the last minute, claiming TV commitments, things don't bode well.

Happily for The Ornate Johnsons, replacement Clea Smith takes up Joanna Neary's reins admirably enough, and the team doesn't appear the worse off as a result.

Jerry Sadowitz and Jo Caulfield are just a few of the talented comics that this writing troupe lists as collaborators.

The series of entertaining sketches here is proof of a good track record in the writing, performing and imagination department, even if some of the gags aren't the most original you've ever seen.

The premise is ostensibly turning things we recognise on their head; so we get skits such as a young, enterprising Emily having to sack Bagpuss for not bringing home the cash or the disenchanted crew of a Kirk-era Starship Enterprise haggling over the price of coming to someone's intergalactic aid.

A funny rendition of the Oliver! classic Who Will Buy? featuring ticket touts, porn magazines and dodgy Rolexes gained the biggest laugh of the night.

The interval is an unwelcome truncation of pace in a show that has had a lot of time spent on the fluidity of its between-sketch links - possibly at the expense of some harder-hitting punchlines.

Still, it's an agreeable night, if nothing more.

The Ornate Johnsons' Edwardian Spectacular