Plenty of critics have mocked Trainspotting – the musical (with lyrics and music by Irvine Welsh and Stephen McGuinness, respectively) but the producers know their audience’s mind. They want to see live theatre without taking the risk of a new play, which might be gruesome, and they prefer a dead-safe replica of a glamorous movie to something by Chekhov or Pinter. Reviewers admire novelty and inventiveness so they tend to punish theatre-makers who reheat leftovers. The show follows the book more closely than the film, where Renton was the central figure, and here he blends in with the community of wasters and criminals who mope around Edinburgh trying to raise cash for smack.

The characters are reduced to simplistic gestures, as easy to read as hand signals. Begbie is a cocky thug. Spud is a twitchy clown. Sick Boy is a handsome nobody. Renton, smirking throughout, is a star looking for a clear night to shine in. The women are even less appealing. The young girlfriends are shrieking pests and the older ladies are fretful gossips and scolds.

Burnham and Powell want to bring back stupid

Does Lucy Powell really think ‘knight’ is an obscure word?

It’s amazing how far Burnham has got by not being Keir Starmer

The........

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