Sarah Millican: Thoroughly Modern Millican

Five minutes in: “Give us a cheer if you’re in a relationship!”

Has it come to this, Sarah? Really? Sadly, it has. Sarah Millican, who won the best newcomer award in 2008 with a bittersweet show about her divorce, and almost bagged the big one last year, has become depressingly conventional.

To be fair, her routine has always revolved around gossipy asides on relationships, her body image, bodily functions, and cake. Yet this year, as the crowds flock and the TV panel shows come calling, it seems soulless and vacuum-packed.

For all the pseudo-confessional material, delivered as if she were nattering across the garden fence, it feels synthetic. Looking around the packed, voluminous Assembly Hall, it is clear why Millican has become so conservative. Her chirrupy, Geordie lass next door appeal is what has brought her from a Pleasance portakabin to here. It's what people have come to see. And it's made her material rather lazy. She complains about her boyfriend, she pokes fun at exercise DVDs, she proclaims a love for chocolate bars – it's like watching a stereotypical female standup on autopilot. 

A much better, if underdeveloped, show lurks within the last 10 minutes. Millican’s one moment of insight comes when she talks about being a risk-averse individual. It leads to a nice line in questioning people’s differing attitudes to life. Her cotton-wool approach will help her live longer, she believes.

By applying the same philosophy to her comedy, however, it looks like having the opposite effect.