WITH politicians currently less welcome than something that's found on the bottom of a shoe by the public, Rik Mayall makes a timely return as the ultimate embodiment of a corrupt MP.

The popular comedy actor returns to his most controversial part as conniving and greedy MP Alan B'Stard for the show entitled New Statesman: The Blair B'Stard Project at Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre between June 12 and 17.

With the Labour Government undermined by what the public see as corrupt ministers and incompetent boot-kissers who would sell their grandparents for a truck load of cash, the last year or so has mirrored the final days of the Conservative Government in the 1990s.

This time the poster-boy for government corruption has switched sides to Tony Blair's Labour Government, but is he really a reformed character?

Will B'Stard - the most depraved and selfish politician of all time - still be on top in Blair's caring New Labour government? Will he find the weapons of mass destruction? Why is Condoleezza Rice in and out of Alan's back door? How did Alan B'Stard get into the Labour Party? Is anybody safe?

The New Statesman was a cult classic which lampooned the rich and powerful who hid away in the Houses of Parliament for four series between 1987 and 1992.

Mayall, originally from Droitwich, has been one of the country's most popular and anarchic performers for the last 25-years, appearing in seminal hits The Young Ones, The Comic Presents, Blackadder and Bottom.

Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who penned the original television series, have created a brand new satire based in the fertile ground of the current political climate.

The duo are also responsible for creating Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart.

Tickets for the New Statesman cost between £10 and £27 and can be bought by calling Ticketmaster on 0870 6077544.