Spoken word review: Stuart Maconie: Jarrow Road To The Deep South

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: In the autumn of 1936, 200 men from Jarrow in Tyneside, accompanied by their MP 'Red' Ellen Wilkinson, walked the length of England to Westminster to present a petition requesting a new steelworks in their economically devastated town.

Gilded Balloon at the Museum (Venue 64)

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Eighty years later, bluff broadcaster Stuart ­Maconie retraced the route of the ­Jarrow March, noting the striking comparisons between 1936 and 2016 (Tory government re-elected with increased majority, Labour party in disarray, wary ­relationship with Europe), producing a blog, a book and now an illustrated talk about his experience.

This warm, witty show takes a far more circuitous route than the marchers, with anecdotal diversions into Nicholas Parsons’s advice for dealing with a dry throat, flirtatious Twitter spats with Michael Gove and Peter ­Mandelson’s ignorance of the mushy pea, leaving time for only the most whistlestop tour of Maconie’s friendly solo march, accompanied by a resolutely ordinary ­slideshow of various towns by night, some lovely civic buildings, quirky signage and a number of selfies, and some fairly superficial insights into the original march which clearly function as a teaser for his book.

Until 27 August. Today 7:30pm.