Kate Smurthwaite: The News at Kate 2013 My Professional Opinion

You have to give the girl some credit; she is slick. She’s clearly at home on the stage, and it shines in her delivery; hardly surprising for someone who spends most of her time winding people up. This bodes well for Kate as she has a lot of important stuff to say; it’s just not that funny. The show is structured and well paced, but starts a little flat – a skit about the Spice Girls feels totally irrelevant, and poking fun at Clarkson’s bikini bod feels like she's groping for cheap laughs. All the more irksome because as the show progresses, it’s clear she’s much cleverer than that.

A parody of an abortion debate with an MP gives her the vehicle she needs to smack the audience with some darker material, though her infinitely versatile wig extracts laughs less clumsily than the coat hanger humour. Despite the uneasy laughter, she segues fluidly into serious discussion, earning some fervent applause from an impressed crowd.

She wraps up the hour with an effortless display of quick-wit, before finishing with a bang. All in, a far more amusing social commentary than the BBC News ever will be. Insightful, astute, but a smiler rather than a belly-laugher. [Vonny Moyes]