Maggie Maggie Maggie

During those dark years of Tory rule there were plenty of targets for pisstakes of a leftish hue and Maggie Maggie Maggie - The Comedy Of The Thatcher Years for the Ha Ha Ha Hackney festival certainly lives up to its billing.

Cobbled together and hosted by the genial yet scabrous Arthur Smith (pictured), it's a series of routines by comedy veterans of that era -Jenny Lecoat, Mike Mole and Tony Slattery - along with relative newcomers Hardeep Singh Kohli and the edgy Terry Alderton.

Fresh from the Paralympics opening ceremony, the Graeae Reasons To Be Cheerful Band belt out some rousing Ian Dury standards too.

The show's a comic and acute reminder of those times - the miners' strike, the poll tax, cuts, the Malvinas war and the "big bang" are all referenced, along with swipes at current Tory class warriors like Boris Johnson who makes a number of appearances, complete with pratfalls.

The Iron Lady herself is present throughout in a brilliant, pitch-perfect impersonation by Steve Nallon, who co-wrote the script with Smith.

He looks uncannily the part in an ever-changing wardrobe of easy-iron frocks and he hoists the infamous Thatcher handbag with menacing aplomb.

Nallon delivers some great one-liners too. "There are two types of foreigners, the ones we like - the Americans - and the rest of the world," Thatcher informs us towards the end as she delivers a "keynote" speech under the influence of a truth drug Smith has admirably spiked her drink with.

That's swiftly followed by a good number of custard pies smacked into her mush amid chants of "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Out, out, out!"

Would it had been that simple back in the day.

Great fun, though, and it's a pity this was a one-off.

It certainly went down well with the large house, many of whom were crapping their nappies when Thatcher and her molochs were wreaking havoc.