Katherine Ryan: Glam Role Model

You’ll need your wits about you for this pop-feminism polemic. For while Ryan arrives at an unsentimental rallying cry for female self-worth, it’s only after pinballing her way through a who’s-who of tabloid fodder.

This panel show pro is in her element, slipping in astute takes on one buzz topic while homing in on another. From Harry Styles to Harry of Wales, Gaza to Magaluf, a blizzard of cutting topical references builds then abates just on the point of becoming overwhelming. She's an unbeliever in a world that worships fame, a no-nonsense feminist who mauled Tulisa on TV, then laughed off the ensuing “rapey” abuse on Twitter.

Eventually, Ryan’s forthright style turns to personal matters. Front and centre is the time she snooped through a boyfriend’s phone, uncovering naked photos sent by a glamour model. With a brilliant caricature of this Essex airhead’s defence, she reaches her point: yes, women should do “woteva” they want – but thanks to a dearth of role models, that freedom’s being used to self-destructive ends.

Ryan, a Canadian immigrant, claims an outsider’s take on Page 3 culture, but it’s not nationality that gives her perspective weight. It’s that she has a four-year-old daughter who will grow up among such influences. But don’t expect any Mumsnet outrage; she pulls no punches in a mischievous story of her perfect day at an “abortion spa”.

To close, attention turns to one star who does deserve adulation. Beyonce, with a gung-ho, hip-swivelling impersonation, is held up as the antidote to Miley Cyrus’s pathetic twerking. With that “victim’s dance” on one side, and Ryan and Queen B on the other, we’re left in no doubt as to who’s best trusted with the spotlight.