Steve Bennett (III)

Weirdos For Christmas No 1 review

Here's a shock... this year's panto from the ever-growing Weirdos collective of comedy circuit oddballs has gone all conventional - and used an actual Christmas theme.

Probably the most TV-experienced of the lot, thanks to BBC Three's Badults and more, the trio of Matthew Crosby, Ben Clark and Tom Parry have created a nicely put-together short as gags and observations build to a satisfying conclusion. It all starts as our Three Unwise Men break down on the way back from a Christmas Eve gig, where their cheesy puns had fallen on deaf ears. Trapped in their car they exchange wittily stupid musings on the likes of Secret Santa and the John Lewis Christmas ad. And Dara O Briain proves himself a great sport in a game cameo.

The physical comedian behind the live shows Squidboy, Kraken and Nautilus offers his take on a classic set-up here, trying to sneak silently around the house as he does the Santa Claus duties on Christmas night... failing dismally, of course. There are some nice touches in the extents he goes to for authenticity in his present-delivery; and a great payoff at the end. Oh, and in the credits you might spot that his character's name is Cliftracts Penktinkerton, which has a nice ring...

This starts with Lolly Adefope performing in a style with which she's very much at home, a shy girl who's thought of an allegedly amusing comment, which plays on her excited lips as she builds up he confidence to say it. When she does, it singularly fails to impress Natasha Demetriou, playing an aloof, cynical colleague from an unspecified Continental nation. They are both elves at a low-rent shopping centre grotto, and when Father Christmas fails to show, Adefope dons the red suit herself, prompting one parent to complain that a black Santa is 'political correctness gone mad', while others are over-keen to show their liberal values. It's an entertainingly knowing script, with Demetriou relishing telling the dark customs of her homeland loosely based on the strange - and, let's face it, racist - Dutch legend of Black Pete.

The trio offer a very bleak image of Christmas in their shabby flat, old sports socks hanging from the mantelpiece in lieu of the stockings. The set designer has even made fairy lights seem grim. We start with Ed Easton dancing hilariously badly with excitement at the prospect of Santa's arrival, but his illusions are shattered, before things take an unexpected turn into the horrific, and then into the plain odd. Kath Hughes and James Meehan co-star, and look out, too, for Justin Moorhouse as a very convincing Father Christmas.

Made to look as if it was shot on old film stock, this short has Alex Horne and his band offering their version of a cloying Bing Crosby-style festive special as fake friends holed up in an elegant country home while the snow falls outside. The clunking, stilted exchanges between Horne and the musicians are a delight, while they showcase a couple of Yuletide tracks, most satisfying of which is a deliciously blasphemous reimagining of the Nativity with disgusting images contrasting with the beautiful hymn-like presentation.

The Australian absurdist shuns all the cosy warmth of Christmas to set his film in a stark, clinical laboratory, where he and his staff (Bridget Christie and Kieran Hodgson) are working on Christmas cracker jokes. Generously, Simmons gives a lot of the best moments to Matt King - channeling his Superhans intensity and oddness into the role of Tall Pall, a mysterious humour troubleshooter. Blink and you might miss Mike Wilmot's cameo contributions to this peculiar scenario.

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