Friday Night Live review — Ben Elton proves he’s still got it in this punchy revival

★★★★☆

Ben Elton kicked off the resuscitated Friday Night Live by bigging up his old adversary “Mrs Thatch”. “I miss her”, he said, wearing his signature glittered jacket for old times’ sake. Unlike Liz Truss, he said, she at least had principles and “you knew she’d still be in power at the end of the programme”. Ooh, “bit of politics”, as Elton used to say. Bringing this show back in 2022 to mark Channel 4’s 40th birthday was a big risk. If you were young in the 1980s, Friday Night Live was the cool, anarchical party to be “at”, the comedy version of The Tube, a high-octane Elton sticking it to the government in his mullet hairdo. Now young people consume comedy in bite-sized pieces