Everything I Know I Learned from TV

Toby Hadoke's roots are in stand-up and his style, even when doing a run of one particular show, is improvisational. He deservedly won himself an admiring audience with his previous show Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf (which ended up on BBC Radio and a CD) and I am sure that same audience will come to enjoy this show too. Indeed I am confident the ranks of his admirers will swell substantially as well. Many of us believe the BBC is a special and invaluable institution, but one that is going through a rough patch, for a combination of cultural, economic and political reasons. This show is an often hilarious, sometimes touching, series of musings, reflections and gags; and also a defence of what the BBC used to be, can be and should be. That it's thought-provoking as well as witty is to its credit and, when he gets into the serious stuff, Hadoke never harangues. Like its predecessor, this show is a constantly evolving work in progress and I look forward to seeing it again in Edinburgh. As for the implications of anti-gay or even racist content by another reviewer, that's simply daft. Once or twice the humour gets a bit close to the knuckle I suppose, but there isn't a prejudiced bone in Toby Hadoke's body. If anything, its left-liberal politics that shine through, but never to the point of irritating anyone who happens not to share them. A lovely man and a fine show, possibly destined for greatness.

Michael McManus (Unverified), 08/08/10

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Early in June, I was in the audience for the very first preview of Hadoke's new show in Hartlepool. I'm looking forward to catching it again in Edinburgh, in late August, by which time I expect it to be in fine fettle. I thought it was intelligent and witty, with lots of great obervations about family life and how it can revolve around TV. For instance, how the young Hadoke would try to second guess the football results, based on the tone of Len Marten's voice as he read out the various football club names. I heard a bloke behind me whisper to his mates, "I used to do that!" Or the story about his grandad, who never missed an edition of Newsnight, but couldn't abide watching Mrs Thatcher being interviewed. One night he said, "I've had enough of her"; he switched her off, went upstairs and died!

I've seen Hadoke perform a few times over the years. He has never struck me as a comedian who would resort to using derogatory racial terms. The 'Black Terry' reference was in the Hartlepool show too, but it was tied to his annoyance at the casual racism of people in his home town. He took a phone call one night from his friend, who announced himself as 'Black Terry' - so Ludlow's only black resident had adopted the name for himself. Hadoke seemed stunned that such a thing could happen. Maybe the reviewer in Oxfordshire missed that?

The majority of the Hartlepool audience loved the show; some were screaming with laughter. It's true that a hen party of 10 left half-way through, with their pink wings and deely-boppers flapping in the gloom. Judging by this review, Hadoke has obviously been tweaking, refining, trying out new material. Perhaps it didn't go quite to plan on the North Wall night... It's a shame the reviewer didn't enjoy the show, but I guess that's what previews are for.

I really liked the fact that a comedian should take a stand in defence of the Beeb. I can't imagine life without it - and that could so easily happen. The reviewer highlights a flaw: "if the audience really cared enough about TV to find such in-depth analysis interesting, surely they would have stayed at home watching it." The trouble is, they probably wouldn't find such in-depth analysis on TV, and certainly not with this number of jokes attached. My thoughts are that if you're a bride-to-be looking for hen night entertainment, this show should be second or third on the list of gigs you might choose. But it should be top of the list if you have fond memories of TV past, that have shaped your experiences growing up.

Ask Aspel (Unverified), 08/08/10

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Toby Hadoke’s stand up comedy show, Everything I Know I Learnt From TV, has been hastily renamed Now I Know My BBC and opens at the Edinburgh festival in 7 days time. On the basis of this preview performance at the North Wall Arts Centre he still has considerable work to do.

The show started off as a light-hearted nostalgia fest for 1970s television. All very well, except this rapidly became something resembling a list of programmes that Toby quite liked, or really liked, or on rare occasions, didn’t like. However, I fear few people in the audience remembered the programmes mentioned and most people under 30 would never have heard of them. Thus, as the show progressed the laughs became fewer, the smiles more fixed and the yawns noticeably more frequent. Aware, I fear, that he had lost his audience Toby resorted to repeatedly using derogatory terms for gay people to try and extract cheap laughs. Even suggesting at one point (without any hint of irony) that “Top Gear presenters wouldn’t dress that well unless they had something to hide”. Finally, the show drew to a close with what can only be described as a lecture concerning “what the BBC ought to be doing”. Unfortunately this ended up rather muddled and confused. Just as it was when he proclaimed his liberal principles shortly after telling jokes about “Black Terry” and “Fudge miners” that were more in bad taste than satirical.

With the delivery more polished by further previews some of the problems may be rectified, however there seems to be one fundamental flaw: If the audience really cared enough about TV to find such in-depth analysis interesting, surely they would have stayed at home watching it. Certainly the way Toby Hadoke meandered awkwardly around the stage almost afraid to make eye-contact didn’t help to keep the audience engaged. At times he reminded me of a teenager trying to pluck up the courage to ask a girl out, but never quite managing it.

All in all, this show has little to offer anyone who is not a true telly addict. Given that so few of the jokes resonated with me, I actually left feeling rather good about myself. At least I couldn’t have wasted my entire childhood in front of the box in the living room. Although, to be honest, I can’t for the life of me think what I’d replaced it with and I’m quite sure it wasn’t any more useful.

Andrew Johnson (Unverified), 29/07/10

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