Adrian West’s The Night Sky Show proved an intriguing but all-too-often laboured look at astronomy, the stars and galaxy that didn’t quite live up to the ‘spectacular, theatrical experience for all without any heavy-going science’ of its pre-match billing.

With nearly a quarter of a million followers on Twitter/X, the astronomer and author also known as VirtualAstro can draw a crowd - Warwick Arts Centre’s biggest auditorium looked at least 80 per cent full - but he’s hardly the most engaging of presenters, with a largely monotone delivery that betrays his obvious enthusiasm for the subject matter.

The show is designed for ages eight and upwards (although an overlong Q&A session at the start of the second half featured questions from even younger audience members), and trying to cover such a wide demographic is almost certainly part of the problem. Some of West’s narrations, descriptions and answers were clearly too complicated for some, too simplistic for others. Indeed, having identified an astrophysicist in the audience, to avoid complicated explanations his stock response to many of the Q&A queries became “ask him”.

In terms of the visuals, a giant LED screen offered some genuinely impressive images of stars and planets - all the better for mostly being real, not CGI - but a bit more action or dynamic would surely have excited and inspired the youngsters (and adults!) rather more than static pictures of the moon or Buzz Lightyear.

And as much as the audience of partisan enthusiasts seemed engrossed enough - maybe having their own knowledge reaffirmed was part of the fun - there was little evidence of the ‘spectacle’ and ‘theatre’ promised at the outset. West might have been at pains to point out this wasn’t a lecture, but in a venue on a university campus it often felt like one.

Three stars

Reviewed by Steve Adams at Coventry's Warwick Arts Centre on Sunday 8 March.