Mild-mannered Miles Jupp has certainly had a good innings recently. He has become a familiar face on panel shows and made a splash in the BBC sitcom Rev as lay reader Nigel. The gifted all-rounder's best spell at the comedic crease, however, is this exquisite show, Fibber in the Heat, in which Jupp reveals how in 2006 he temporarily gave up performing and bluffed his way around India as a cricket journalist.
You don't have to be a Freddie Flintoff fanatic to appreciate this lovingly-spun yarn. The uninitiated might not relish the Richie Benaud references as much as last night's knowledgeable crowd but the linen-clad star paints such vivid pictures of his press-room encounters with David Gower, Ian Botham and boyhood hero Mike Atherton that they spring to life even if you cannot tell one end of a stump from another. The image of Gower doing word-perfect Monty Python impressions hits home particularly well.
Jupp is also very precise with words, recalling his time as a minor icon of toddler television in the series Balamory as "prancing around in a pink kilt for the very slight amusement of children". The heart of this deceptively understated monologue, though, is Jupp recalibrating his life and deciding it is better to be a full-on fan of something you care about than a semi-detached critic, so he tore up his notebook and returned to comedy. Judging by this show and his recent success, clearly the correct decision.
11 February, Hemel Hempstead Old Town Hall. Information: 01442 228091, dacorum.gov.uk/arts
Miles Jupp: Fibber In The Heat (A Cricket Tale)
The Bloomsbury Theatre
15 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AH
