one4review | On 17, Aug 2026

Nothing brings people together like a funeral. It’s a time for remembrance, reverence, reverends and…revenants?

Jane Plemley, a figure well known in the sleepy Suffolk village of Godsby-Upon-Treen, has requested that slightly cancelled celebrity TV holy man Rev. Derek Gritt (Hudson Hughes) delivers her funeral, which he sees as the perfect opportunity to polish-up his tarnished reputation after his latest fall from relevance. There’s only one problem – all the parishioners seem to think that Jane was a black magic witch. And she might not be as dead as she seems. It soon becomes clear that in order to survive this service the Reverend might need to brush up on his exorcisms.

The jokes are quick and clever with a delightful silliness to them that feels appropriately Anglican in a way I can’t quite articulate. There’s one particularly hilarious moment where the audience sings a comedy hymn – a set up so simple and obvious in retrospect its genius in execution. Of particular note is how Hughes really shines as the smarmy and sanctimonious Rev. Derek, who swiftly became one of my favourite comic characters in any show I’ve seen this year. His smugness and complete disdain for the congregation only became funnier the spookier the funeral got and it became more and more obvious it was all going to come back to bite him on his holy backside. And make no mistake, despite the absurdity of the humour, things do get genuinely scary at points, with some. lovely sinister jumpscares. The atmosphere is perhaps aided by the show’s late start time, though I’d argue that a show this good would suit a slightly less unsociable hour.

The show has impressively high production values for its size with a full size prop coffin, great sound and light work and a very complicated (if slightly temperamental) animatronic imp, but the show is more than strong enough to stand without the bells and whistles, impressive as they are.

In the queue outside the venue, I overheard the show described as “Alan Partridge meets the Exorcist” and while I normally hate reducing shows to a glib set of comparisons like that – yeah, that’s precisely how the show feels, but in a really, really good way. It makes a great stage show and would probably make a very good TV show. I’d love to see more of this and fewer Baby Fleabag wannabes being commissioned.

Hudson Hughes along with his frequent collaborator Aidan Pittman (who has a couple of cameos in this show) are fast becoming “must see” acts for me with a brand of clever anarchic middle-class nonsense that feels like discovering Monty Python for the first time. Not sure I can recommend it better than that.

5 stars *****
Reviewed by Tom
Iron Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate
Until 30th August
23:10 – 00:10