The Immaculate Contraption
I was in CCA in Glasgow tonight to watch a recording of The Why Front - the Christmas Day edition, in fact. The place was packed out, which isn't half bad for a cold, wet night in the middle of December. The sketches were seriously, laugh-out-loud funny, but I have no idea how producer Margaret-Anne Docherty is going to edit it down to the required 27 minute slot for Christmas morning.
Fans of the series will be happy to know that many of the much-loved characters make a return appearance, including the Polar Bears and Glasgow nedettes Miranda & Amanda. There was also a running sequence involving a Mother who believes her charmless daughter is expecting a virgin birth as a result of an "immaculate contraption". Later she discovers the daughter has struck up a relationship with a Hebridean sheep-handler who confesses that he "kissed her on The Minch...and also on the mainland."
As the audience filed out I got a chance to congratulate some of the writers, including Theresa Talbot. She's created some new characters for the series, including a novice nun and her Mother Superior. The novice believes she has to mimic Julie Andrews' performance in The Sound of Music and is somewhat aghast to discover she has to give up alcohol and men.
I was still laughing two hours later, by which time I was on my own, walking along Byres Road and getting some very odd looks from passers-by.
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