BBC sketch show stars Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller brought their latest brilliant comedy tour to the Fairfield Halls in Croydon last night.

The show was painfully funny and featured plenty of favourite characters, including the delightfully preposterous vampires and the World War II airmen, who made repeated hilarious appearances.

The show really got going when the characters started involving audience members in their disturbing worlds. One poor lass found herself giggling on stage in the dentist’s chair while Armstrong probed her teeth.

I think they might have thought we were a tough crowd, but the sound wasn’t very clear, particularly during the songs which meant we were working hard to hear them.

Aside from the airmen sketches, the best bit was running into the boys themselves coming out of Croydon’s Bella Italia when we popped in for a pre-theatre meal! I was too astonished and star-struck to say anything, but was impressed with Alexander Armstrong’s taste in knitted cable hats.

You’ve still got time to see Armstrong and Miller’s show in London at the New Wimbledon Theatre next week and there’s plenty more great comedy in London this winter.

Did you know:

• The name Croydon comes from the Anglo Saxon words for crocus (croh) valley (denu)?
• And a possible derivation of Sydenham is the Anglo-Saxon “Cippas’ settlement” – meaning drunkard’s settlement?
• Or that the guys with the task of building Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s mammoth Thames Tunnel were paid in beer?

These were just some of the fascinating titbits Lettice and I picked up at Overground Uncovered at the London Transport Museum last night.

We had an early preview of the new exhibition along with many of the people responsible for the completion of the exciting new London Overground line, which currently runs from Dalston Junction to West Croydon.

The new exhibition reflects the line’s colouring (lots of orange) and tells the stories of the people and places that have now been firmly pulled into London’s ever-fascinating transport system.

The exhibition contains three sections:

1. Connecting Communities: graphic art from the museum’s archive combined with modern photographs and personal stories from the people who live there
2. The Thames Tunnel: the story behind Brunel’s incredible feat of engineering, which also became a tourist attraction!
3. A new train set for London: time-lapse videos and photos showing the construction of the new trains and the line, plus there’s a Top Trumps game compares the new trains with the old steam locomotives of the 1870s

It’s not a huge exhibit, but it makes a really nice, bang-up-to-date addition to the already brilliant London Transport Musuem’s collection.

Overground Uncovered runs at the London Transport Museum from 29 June until 31 March 2011.