Matt Forde: Dishonourable Member

Hardly the hour of political comedy that one might expect, Matt Forde's solo debut sees him recount the circumstances under which he found a passion for, and became involved in, politics. If the string of Britpop hits played before his arrival onstage suggests that he is stuck in the past, then that's because he is. A lifelong Labour supporter, Forde touchingly describes the day he became a party member and deifies Tony Blair, a man he has admired for years.

Approaching the subject from the perspective of a faintly laddish football fan, he laments the absence of personality in mainstream politics following Blair's resignation and intelligently recognises the danger of apathy amongst the electorate. An even-handed and thoughtful fellow, Forde understands why some of Blair's actions proved unpopular, yet defends them with admirable conviction.

Well judged as its political content may be, Dishonourable Member is essentially a series of anecdotes relating to Forde's own chumpdom, all of which seem to involve Jaeger-Bombs. In an autobiographical tour de force, he successfully evokes various times and places and refuses to spare himself embarrassment at the expense of a joke.