Bishop With The Rise And Rise Of Julia.

The three main players looked on nervously over the last year as some of their favourite subjects were hurled off the castle battlements, into oblivion, and largely out of contemporary satire’s way. Meanwhile newcomer Bishop was blessed with the rise and rise of Julia. Lucky lady and does she make the most of it. That said, Phil Scott still gets a go at his fabulous – brilliantly observed – Kevin Rudd. There are some new treats: a gathering of global leaders gives us Scott again, this time as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in surely the best (naughtiest) outfit he has ever has has a chance to wear; and Bishop is a hairflick away from a definitive Christina Keneally. Well, in fact she’s there – it’s spot on.

Jonathan Biggins directs more skilfully each year – this year show feels like its got more money behind it, and it runs to a beat – a gag a minute. It’s not all Parish pump.The evening enjoys a lovely Eurovision moment and its Grimm motif: we are taken by the hand as Julia Gillard’s Little Red Riding Hood is obliged to confront a mythically fearful Big Bad ‘Tony Abbott’ Woolf. Forsythe’s task as the humour-free Abbott is a challenge, but he finds a way; and several of his other roles, including his part in The Mikado meets Masterchef skit (over whale meat), and as, I think, a number of dodgy NSW parliamentarians. Though impossible to beat Scott as ex-police minister, David Campbell, in his Ken’s Karate Klub towel.