IT may be only 300 yards along the road from the Deacon's Alms to the Playhouse Theatre, yet Salisbury Umbrella Theatre Company seems to have come a long way.

In September 2001 it was a pipe dream over a few pints in the pub. Two years later it is a fast-moving supper revue, Christmas Crackers, delighting full houses in the Salberg Studio

Under Caroline Leslie's direction, sketches, songs and monologues pour from the five-strong company, Kate Adams, Tony Boncza, Ros Liddiard and Nick Lumley at such a pace there's not even time to think whether you've heard any of them before! For what it's worth, I don't think I have, though there is something familiar about this party entertainment.

Anyone who remembers radio revues in the 1940s and '50s will recognise the flavour, it's almost Goon-like.

I am glad the audience has supper before the entertainment. As it is, digestion has to be postponed until later. And suddenly I realise what the connection with the old radio is, rarely do we encounter such fast-moving stuff on the stage, or anywhere else.

It is impossible not to cheer Salisbury favourite Nick Lumley who has such a natural face for comedy, quite apart from what he does with it.

Yet where would he be without the team, Adam Kotz (keyboard) and Tony Boncza both of whom bring new meaning to learning lines? Without Ros Liddiard we would hardly catch our breaths while with Kate Adams, who needs the rest of the Berlin Philharmonic?

But you need to see the show to appreciate that -- and the final performance in on January 3.

Kevin Catchpole