Hull is my muse, says the writer of TV’s Hullraisers and Radio 4’s To Hull and Back. Would you be surprised to hear that Lucy Beaumont’s touring show The Trouble & Strife draws heavily on eccentric tales of Humberside life? Not that her audience is complaining: Beaumont does this stuff terrifically well, and this is a lovable 75 minutes about Mecca Bingo, Matalan and neighbours who’ve never had a raisin. But there’s something coy about it too, as if Hull isn’t just Beaumont’s muse, but her smokescreen.
What’s immediately conspicuous is Beaumont’s unconfident body language: she stands stock still throughout, as if trying to hide behind her mic stand. That’s of a piece with her amused but pained persona, every line delivered as if Beaumont is saying, “it’s shameful to tell you this, but I can’t resist.” Cue stories of “bottomless brunches” with her “mum friends”, a “butler in the buff” stunt gone wrong, and tales of her upbringing, where everyone had “either gangrene or a perm”.
