AUNTY BEEB's favourite comedy duo, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, have not toured for 11 years... and it shows.

Two hours on stage last night in their show, entitled Grown Men In Public, spawned the occasional amusing moment, but it was a case of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Most of the chaff emanated from Punt, who failed to enunciate words properly in his lacklustre rambling.

Holding a clip-board like a security blanket, he reminded me of TV chat show host Michael Parkinson on a bad day, or the murmuring Parliamentarian Robin Cook.

Most of the show's highlights came from Dennis, particularly when he aped the walk of a vicious flesh-eating dinosaur from Jurassic Park.

His sketch about a homicidal driving instructor was amusing, but derivative of a similar sketch by the American comedian Bob Newhart.

The duo's satirical swipe at NHS Direct, hailed by New Labour as a panacea for the National Health Service, owed much to The Two Ronnies.

The careers of Punt and Dennis took off with The Mary Whitehouse Experience, alongside David Baddiel and Rob Newman, when comedy was the new rock 'n' roll.

But now the family men are easing into middle age, and a possible midlife crisis.

What else could have prompted them to leave the comfort zone of a BBC studio, where they have hosted Radio 4's The Now Show and Radio 2's It's Been A Bad Week?

Much of last night's show would have ended up on the cutting room floor.

Updated: 10:45 Tuesday, January 18, 2005