Coast to Coast

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Edinburgh Festival review
Rating (out of 5)
5
Show info
Company
HardGraft
Performers
Mark Whitely, Daniel Hoffman-Gill
Running time
60mins

There ought to be law against performers being as likeable as Mark Whitely and Dan Hoffman-Gill. For a start, it makes reviewing them almost impossible because all I'm thinking is "Where do they go and hang out when they're not doing this, and how can I become one of their friends?"

Leaving that aside for now, though, let's talk about "Coast to Coast", a show these two have cooked up to tell the true story of their epic 216-mile walk across Britain, from Bangor in Wales to Boston, Lincolnshire. "Big long walk, big fat deal," I hear you say. But wait - these guys did it with no resources except whatever they could barter in exchange for their combined talent as entertainers. And it worked. They managed to blag a bed and some supper most nights, and they met a whole galaxy of weird and wonderful characters along the way.

Heavily reliant on the well-worn notion that fact is often stranger than fiction, they deploy a particularly neat device of introducing each town's local paper and its headline on the day they arrive - a rich seam, indeed. But it's their hugely affable personalities that provide the alchemy to turn such well-trodden base metal into pure comedy gold. Cheers, lads.