Lucy Montgomery's Variety Pack - review

There is a lot to like about Lucy Montgomery's Variety Pack (Radio 4), a series of sketches with the emphasis on ludicrous scenarios and voices. Some sketches were funnier than others, but there wasn't a dud one in the first programme. A few moments were a little too Catherine Tate-y, and there were a couple of top notes of Little Britain and Russell Brand vocally. That is, however, the comic milieu for this small team of writers, and from that they shape their own kooky material and some very ticklish interludes. A masseuse, obsessed with her one famous client (Jeff Lynne from ELO), offers a customer the option of whale sounds while she works. "I thought you were going to put on a CD," he cries in horror, as she begins impersonating whales. "No need," she says brightly, adding a talking dolphin, shark, Neptune, and Popeye into the mix. It takes the funny potential of being at the mercy of the therapist, and twists it nicely. The Mona Lisa speaks in another sketch, explaining how frustrated she gets by the comments people make about her. "Does she have a moustache? No, it's the shadow of the paint," she thunders. On the student posters, showing her smoking a joint, she says dismissively: "I was young. It was the Renaissance. No biggie."