The Prime Minsister is planning a farewell tour of Bee Gees hits, Condi Rice is gunning for an invasion of Iran, and Cherie Blair won't leave his leg alone.

It's a normal day in the life of Alan B'Stard, as played with relish by Rik Mayall.

The former uber-Tory has started his own party, New Labour, and is now firmly ensconced in Number Nine Downing Street trying to join the Trillionaires Club, the shadowy group which secretly runs the world.

He may be greyer around the temples but B'Stard is as Machiavellian as ever, plotting to bring down Gordon Brown with the help of some siphoned-off Treasury money and a jar of Marmite.

Meanwhile, he is trying to avoid the unwelcome attentions of his fourth wife's divorce demands and a terrorist who can drown a man in a saucer of coffee.

B'Stard is such a big character the stage feels empty when he is not on it, although Garry Cooper's Old Labour whipping boy provides a great comic foil.

The jokes are kept topical as original writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran update the script each week to include such gens as the 15 Marines who were so fed up with British forces' shortages they tried to join the Iranian navy.

Prudes should be warned, though, that good taste and political correctness are occasionally ignored, although the bad language is rarely gratuitous, particularly in one fantastic scene when the Queen is waiting on hold.