The woman behind me in the interval queue obviously didn't get what she bargained for, but everyone else did.

Hardy augments his socialist anger with a good dose of grumpy-old-man bafflement these days, but the veteran stand-up is still in no mood to take a calm look at the world from both sides of the comic fence.

The audience - all from the left/liberal Radio 4 milieu by the look of them – enjoyed his familiar yet still sharp takes on the likes of US foreign policy, the rise of David Cameron and our increasing fear of teenagers.

There's also a lot of good material drawn from his own life, which is something of a departure. Tales of having a taxi hijacked by Boris Johnson or being driven to a distant gig by a menacing cockney bodyguard go down as well as the political routines.

Crucially it's a very self-aware performance – witness his tongue-in-cheek disappointment at researching his family tree and finding no working-class heroes or members of oppressed minorities. Hardy slopes off at the end, promising "an interval of about two years". You just know he'll get another warm welcome when he does return. Simon Steele

Verdict: Cross but cuddly.