Surprise election forces comedians to tear up Edinburgh festival scripts

For this year's fringe, performers will be rapidly updating their shows to reflect the outcome at the ballot box

Let's just say, I didn't make a bet on the election date, and if I had, I would be massively out of pocket," says Emma Sidi, who'll be performing in character as chief Partygate investigator Sue Gray in her new show at this year's Edinburgh festival fringe. It's a surreal take on political comedy, with character comedian Sidi reimagining Gray as a real hun, that kind of girl next door, someone who says it how it is", but there are also topical jokes, with Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer appearing as key characters.

Sidi, like most of the country, expected the election would be called in autumn, so when the announcement came that it would be done and dusted less than a month before the fringe opens, comedians who dared to tackle politics in this volatile year were suddenly faced with serious rewrites.