Josie Long: Romance and Adventure

Josie Long was freshly politicised by the 2010 elections, and a naive but endlessly willing activist sprung into action. Last year's award nominated show articulated her new found passion wonderfully. Two years later though, and she’s struggling to make a difference. This is mirrored by her crisis over turning 30, but the mixture ends up creating more ambling confusion than political fury. It’s still plenty funny at points. A ton of material mined from a short-sighted ‘things to do before you’re 30’ article is great. Some of the more downright silly political stuff works too, her impression of Ed Milliband in power being a notable delight.

On the whole though her giddy demeanour has a tendency to undercut her polemic. She’s already preaching to the converted so it matters little, but there is still a lack of stuff that we don't already know. To her credit she seems aware of this though, and often annotates her quips with an amusingly droll '1920s voice' suggesting as much. It’s always interesting to watch comedians explore new directions, but this show lacks the raw passion of last year's. There are laughs to be had, but they’re broken up by such obvious social commentary that it left me wishing for the more exuberant and unburdened Josie of past years.