The sound of 350 pairs of eyebrows raising greeted arch Brexiteer David Davis as he took his seat as Alex Salmond’s first surprise guest at his Unleashed Fringe show.
Some had joked about Salmond’s LBC radio colleagues Nigel Farage or George Galloway as potential guests, but the general consensus was a political impressionist comic was most likely.
A guest who embodies everything Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP stands against and the leader of the UK department the Scottish Government is currently locked in battle with was unexpected, to say the least.
But the more the interview continued and the pair talked about their 30 years of friendship, the warmer his reception became as the parallels between the two men and their approach to life became clearer.
Salmond introduced him as the next Prime Minister and Davis politely demurred, at the same time as telling numerous anecdotes demonstrating how much more human he was than his current boss.
He regaled us with his naughtiest moment, which did not involve running through wheat fields but forcing an entire squadron to kit up in the middle of the night and stand there “for hours” in a revenge prank.
David also threw some gentle insults May’s way, describing how he was in a bar with his phone switched off when she was appointing cabinet ministers, how career has “never been the most important thing” to him and how the PM didn’t crack a smile when he wanted the Brexit department to be known as Department X.
Salmond picked up on the Brexit issue by running through an introduction to Scotland’s lengthy trading relationship with Europe and his belief membership of the European Free Trade Area was now the best option.
The rest of the show hung very loosely together with a short skit by Janey Godley, a half-naked man in a kilt with a fluffy sporran and a charity auction for a champagne cream tea with Salmond and Davis.
There were various references to Salmond’s aborted interview with John Humphries where he wanted to tell an anecdote about sadomasochism, which he told the Press and Journal was “as innocent as an S&M story can be” and would be revealed in the final show.Salmond also ruled out Michael Gove as a potential guest, saying he “only had sane people on the show”.
A bit of extra drama came after a book-signing as comic Danny Posthill, dressed as Trump in a Make Salmond Great Again hat, accosted the former MP as he left with the line “it’s such a shame the people of Gordon told you you’re fired” — probably the best line of the afternoon.
