HIS most famous creations, Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, lovable and grotesque in equal measure, are much loved.

Understandably, therefore, the BIC was pretty much packed out - or at least it was when Sir Les staggered on, scratching, burping and slobbering over the first three rows.But before the Fat Lady (if I may be so impolite about the jet-setting Housewife Superstar) had screeched her last, there were more than a few punters heading for the exits ... and several more, I suspect, remaining in their seats out of a sense of duty.

With the considerable assistance of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Carl Davis, this was a show of two halves.

In the first, Sir Les parodied Peter and the Wolf, with an even more terrifying shark giving the story a suitably Antipodean feel. After the interval, Dame Edna, resplendent in red, shrieked through a musical potted history of Australia.

It might have been fun for a few minutes. For the best part of two hours, though, it was far from that.

The upside was some genuinely inspired humour, mainly courtesy of the repulsive yet strangely endearing Sir Les ("I've been busier than a Baghdad bricklayer," he told us.) Frankly disappointing, though, was Dame Edna's (thankfully brief) interaction with a couple of audience members, ("I'm not picking on you, possums," she assured her victims. "I'm empowering you.") It's 10 years since Dame Edna last bestrode the stage, and Last Night of the Poms was first staged in 1982 - it might have been kinder to let it be.