August is always a deliciously busy month; not least of all because it’s Edinburgh time! A fun wallow in networking and rubbernecking: and it’s not just comedy. Not by a long chalk! In fact, this year’s theatrical landmark isn’t even part of the Fringe. It’s the truly revolutionary Simon McBurney solo show The Encounter, from Complicite. An extraordinary experience. Other theatre ranges from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Shakespeare Musical Willy’s Bitches, to the powerful Simian parable Kafka’s Ape, starring Howard Rosenstein. There’s beautiful clowning in Eric the Fred, spirited stand-up from Suzy Bennett at the Counting House, and even balletic juggling in 4×4 Ephemeral Architectures. Hey, Edinburgh in August has *everything* you could possibly want. That includes celebrations of comedy’s past; notably this year Kevin McNally and most of The Missing Hancocks team taking the BBC recording experience North of the Border, Simon Cartwright’s uncanny Bob Monkhouse at the Assembly Hall, and Simon Schatzberger’s beautiful Woody Allen ’60s stand-up set at Frankenstein’s. Simply exquisite!

I saw the matinee of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the Vaudeville theatre today. An outstanding production, directed by Adrian Noble, and with David Suchet’s performance as Lady Bracknell as its epicentre. Without an ounce of grotesque, his wonderfully mannered, precise, and fluid rendition of Oscar Wilde’s bon mot powerhouse was supported by a uniformly excellent cast. Old pros. Richard O’Callaghan and Michele Dotrice sparked off each other wonderfully; while Imogen Doel made for a particularly enchanting Cecily. Philip Cumbus as Algernon pretty much walked off with the show, with a performance straddling pioneering ‘Punch’ and cyber cheek. It’s a quite extraordinary turn. Booking until 7th November, I highly recommend you see it. You’ll thank me.

Very sad to hear that that peerless actor George Cole died yesterday at the ripe old age of 90. What a life. What a career! From Flash Harry to Arthur Daley, he effortlessly personified the cockney rogue, but there was a depth to his performances that mark him out as one of our truly great actors. Even before St. Trinian’s, he had sparred with his childhood benefactor Alastair Sim, notably in the 1941 propaganda thriller Cottage to Let. He would became an almost constant talisman for Sim; playing young Scrooge, doing anything for money in Laughter in Paradise, and even popping up unannounced in An Inspector Calls and The Happiest Days of Your Life. Later the two pitted wits in the wickedly dark comedy The Green Man. With the immense success of ‘Minder’ on television, his classic British films of the fifties were often over-looked, but treasures like Too Many Crooks, Will Any Gentlemen…?, and The Intruder are personal favourites that I can re-visit time and time again. Then there was the Hammer comedy Don’t Panic Chaps, and the subsequent horror outing in The Vampire Lovers. And so, so many telly highlights: ‘Comrade Dad’, ‘Blott on the Landscape’, a tail-ender reunion with Dennis Waterman for ‘New Tricks’, to name but a few. Still, perhaps the finest of all is as The Firebug in an episode of television crime series ‘Gideon’s Way’: a truly extraordinary picture of mental obsession that will leave you gasping. Rest well, sir, the world really was your lobster!

The inaugural Great Yorkshire Fringe finished today and what a glorious event it was – well, the small but beautifully formed bit of it that I saw in any case. Congratulations to Martin Witts and his spirited, super-efficient, and ever-charming crew. For the first time, we took my ‘Robert Ross Requests the Pleasure…’ out of the Museum of Comedy and, indeed, out of London. The name of the event and the fact that Saturday 1st August was Yorkshire Day made my first guest obvious to me. It just had to be one of the original Four Yorkshiremen, and that meant the legendary Tim Brooke-Taylor. We travelled up by car together, and Friday evening was a delirious time. We may even have talked about the show. Maybe! Local boy Mark Addy also agreed to be interrogated and, by contrast, we had never met before. Thankfully, both shows were a joy, and many thanks to all those who attended. The podcasts should be available shortly. I only had time to actually see a couple of shows, but what shows they were: Slightly Fat Features presented a family-friendly variety of circus tricks, song, puppetry, and sheer high-energy entertainment. While Canadian Commander Tom Stade dished-up some fresh material which was typically pithy, witty, and frantically independent. Oh, and I bumped into the delightful Henning Wehn; long enough to share a joke and a few vegan restaurant tips. All in all, a splendid time was had by all. Here’s to the next time… But first, the Edinburgh Fringe beckons!