Edinburgh Festival Day 15: Festival Eye

SPITTING IMAGE impersonators Steve Coogan and John Thompson have won this year's Perrier award for comedy. They will receive pounds 2,000 and a run at the Purcell Room at London's South Bank Centre from 29 September for three weeks. Fellow nominees John Shuttleworth, Jo Brand, Mark Thomas and Bruce Morton will also be appearing. All five shows can be sampled at The Perrier Pick of the Fringe Show in the Assembly Rooms, 9pm, from 3 to 5 September. Harry Hill was given a newly created award, Most Promising Newcomer, for his surreal slideshow, Flies.

AFTER a self-styled Saturday afternoon 'gala performance' of his show, Arthur Smith Sings Andy Williams (see Reviews), Arthur Smith conducted an impromptu Alternative Tour of the Royal Mile, an alcoholic ramble through the old city. At 4am, Smith coaxed a crowd of more than 100 people to crawl on its hands and knees across the square in front of St Giles' Cathedral before persuading one of them to climb a column outside the Fringe office and strip. Meanwhile, the comedy veteran Malcolm Hardee indulged his favourite party-piece, rounding off festivities by climbing a wall and urinating on the eager crowd below.