Sketch-based live comedy is always a risky proposition.

At any turn, you may get the smug sense of Footlights back-slapping privilege or the often painfully shambolic self-indulgence of improv.

The irresistible Beasts combined elements of both of the above yet somehow emerged triumphant.

Essentially an old-fashioned not-quite family-friendly trio in the knowing style of the much-loved Pappy's, these talented performers wore their influences on collective sleeve: Reeves and Mortimer ridiculous musical numbers; Goons slapstick larks (bespectacled James McNicholas a dead ringer for Harry Secombe); references to a Mighty Boosh-style surreal journey through time and space.

With the standard formula intact, we had a serious one (here, the deadpan Owen Roberts), an OTT silly one (Ciaran Dowd in, shall we say, soul-baring form) and a weird one in the shape of McNicholas; there was always the feeling that we'd seen and heard all of this many times before.

Of course, we had, but this barely mattered when the good-natured material was so funny, performances so endearingly goofy and general atmosphere so infectious as was the case in a packed Warren.

With slight tweaks to the format, this rapturously received hour managed to rise above even the most cynical of reviewers' expectations.

Three stars