Gavin Webster: It's About Time We Had More Women in There

Concerned that his Geordie accent makes everything he utters sound sexist, Gavin Webster nevertheless delivers an hour focused on the idiotic ways in which women are treated, especially when this is by groups purporting to be feminist. His particular bugbear is quotas which, he argues, mask the complexities of female oppression. His bile towards such simplistic solutions to intractable problems is filtered through his anger towards people such as liberals, along with the other 90 per cent of humans he hates. As such, this is an angry show, resolutely committed to the idea that comedy can engage in politics.

But this makes it sound more astringent than it is. Webster’s invective is delivered in haltering, stuttering rambles, revealing a glimmer of insecurity beneath the fury. This is a sweeter show than it appears at first. Which is good, as he's aware of the contradictions inherent in a shouty man insisting he knows how to solve women's problems. But he also often retreats from the particularities of his politics: more than once he reveals he's a Labour voter by upbringing but could not stick with that party when Blair was in charge, and it would have been fascinating to hear more on this.

His concern for the power of the overly-concerned means he worries that we might be nearing the end of comedy, as society collapses into factions afraid of offence. This would be a shame as, given the evidence here, humour continues to offer a space for truths to be told.