Comedy Prom

On the radio, this event had all the appeal of a party next door, full of people laughing uproariously at each other for no reason perceptible to anyone not actually present. Tim Minchin, the host, lacked any facility to describe to his radio audience what was going on. Papier mâché horses' heads were mentioned, ditto lavatory seats and plungers, none of them visible, audible or worth imagining. Kit and The Widow came on, making fun of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim but not very well. A melancholy song about pollution followed, then soprano Susan Bullock joined them for what was described as curry-oke, a singalong version of Nessun Dorma which was said to be in Punjabi and sounded quite astonishingly patronising and racist.

The interval talk was a bit better, but not much. Comedians Natalie Haynes and Steve Punt talked about comedy in literature, acting out one little scene from Aristophanes and another from Shakespeare badly enough to contradict their claims that, this way, they made sense. The Prom second half began with one of those pastiche piano pieces that meander from parody to parody, Rachmaninov to Tchaikovsky to Gershwin to Nino Rota to Pop Goes the Weasel and Roll Out the Barrel. All praise to the BBC Concert Orchestra for playing throughout with gusto and good humour. Curses on everyone else who took part in this grim exercise in condescension.

BBC Comedy Prom review

It has been, we can safely agree, a truly terrible week. Art, culture, call it what you will, is unequal to the task of diagnosing a nation's ills, let alone curing them. But on a night such as the inaugural Comedy Prom, it comes equipped with healing balm.

Comedy Prom review

If we can get through this review without provoking Tim Minchin to write a song about it, we'll have achieved some kind of closure. Six summers ago, when a Guardian critic eviscerated the kohl-hogging Aussie Tom Lehrer's Edinburgh debut, Minchin retorted by tearing the review into bits in a tune you can still hear on YouTube.

Actor (he's played the title roles in both Hamlet and Amadeus), pianist and composer, maverick Australian comedian Tim Minchin brings his diverse talents - and trademark wild hair and eye make-up - to tonight's first ever Comedy Prom. He is the host for an evening of music and laughter that also features BBC2 Maestro winner Sue Perkins, cabaret duo Kit and the Widow and soprano Susan Bullock (who will be back on the Last Night in patriotic mode to rule with Britannia). And, of course, the ever versatile BBC Concert Orchestra. One of the highlights is sure to be Franz Reizenstein's hilarious Concerto popolare, in which the orchestra believes it's playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto but the soloist is under the impression that it's the Grieg! Rising star British pianist Danny Driver does battle tonight.

BBC Proms 2011 (Radio 3, 7.30pm) is first: a Comedy Prom. Host is Tim Minchin, maverick Australian performer and composer (for his musical version of Roald Dahl's Matilda, for the Royal Shakespeare Company earlier this year). Other attractions include pianist Danny Driver, soprano Susan Bullock, camp cabaret duo Kit and the Widow and comedian Sue Perkins. The BBC Concert Orchestra plays on, regardless.