Andrew Maxwell: Banana Kingdom

Andrew Maxwell has enough charm and talent to breeze through this hour of anecdotes, accents and assorted craic without ever giving the impression that he's spent much time actually thinking about this show. It's clear what the ostensible theme is going to be when Maxwell cunningly segues from his opening geographical crowdwarmers – "so, who's come a long way to be here tonight?" – with the words, "And that's the thing about nationalism." It's a good thing he sounded the Theme Klaxon; otherwise we might get the impression that all he's really doing is riffing good-naturedly on national stereotypes and passing it off as political comedy. 

The stuff about dour Scots and kinky Scandies is pretty much in keeping with the rest of the show, in which Maxwell keeps his sights trained low. Americans? Gun-loving fatties. Cockneys? Essentially hilarious. And what about cop shows?! Sometimes Maxwell comes close to being off-puttingly self-aggrandising. There's a fair bit about the schmoozy parties he gets invited to these days, although at least he takes pains to cast himself as a fish out of water, the drunk bloke squinting at the Taoiseach's knob in the gents.' 

Ultimately Maxwell has more than enough warmth, and just enough quality material (he's good on red squirrels, Alex Salmond, and feeling embarrassed by his young son's middle-class Englishness) to keep things ticking over. As he turns a mixed bag of jokes into a smooth, comfortable hour of comedy, there can be no doubting Maxwell's comedic gifts. But there's an undeniable feeling of going through the motions.