Tom Wrigglesworth: Utterly At Odds With The Universe

A Werther's Originals-tinged exploration of the relationship between a young man and his grandfather that ends in the death of the latter was never going to have them rolling in the aisles, but this is a very touching if only gently funny hour from Sheffielder Tom Wrigglesworth.

Starting with a recording of one of the many 'interviews' the two did together when he was a boy, Wrigglesworth recounts various childhood misadventures and—in loving detail—sketches his grandfather. He was able to fix anything with his ancient tools passed down from father to son and blessed with a working-class philosophical mind – a man from a more-or-less bygone age. The scene in the hospital with the elder man's hands clasped round an imaginary tool and Wrigglesworth's around his is particularly endearing, and one does feel a certain sense of privilege to be there with a man so thoroughly and so beautifully opening up. The fact that it never becomes cloying or sickly is a testament to Wrigglesworth's immense talent as a storyteller.

However, the delicately drawn lines are ruined mid-show when Wrigglesworth spends a sizeable amount of time dwelling on an ostensibly unrelated dinner with Christine Hamilton and Iain Duncan Smith and a trip to Dubai. Though not without some decent laughs, these are uncharacteristically blatant attempts to pad his material out to an hour. It feels rather like being dragged from beneath the warm covers after Wrigglesworth has lovingly tucked us in.