Adam Riches: The Captain review – the extraordinary glory of a ‘half man, half fish’ Victorian hero
Summerhall, Edinburgh An endurance test for a standup already starring in a fringe hit, this show resurrects the man who drilled the first ever cross-Channel swimmer ‘Who are these people that do what [the rest of us] cannot?” Adam Riches ’ solo play The Captain teases at the daredevil spirit, incarnate here in Capt Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the Channel unaided. Riches plays Fred Beckwith, a swimming coach
Open original article- Ledger record
- #2971
- First seen
- 26 Aug 2026, 08:14 UTC
- Last checked
- 27 Aug 2026, 09:16 UTC
- Version history
- 1 version
- Current fingerprint
8171cb90e8c9...050e62
Publisher layer
Recorded article metadata
- Publisher
- The Guardian
- Country
- England / United Kingdom
- Source published
- 26 Aug 2026, 08:00 UTC
- Source updated
- No update timestamp supplied
- Byline
- Brian Logan
- Section
- Edinburgh festival 2026
Summerhall, Edinburgh An endurance test for a standup already starring in a fringe hit, this show resurrects the man who drilled the first ever cross-Channel swimmer ‘Who are these people that do what [the rest of us] cannot?” Adam Riches ’ solo play The Captain teases at the daredevil spirit, incarnate here in Capt Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the Channel unaided. Riches plays Fred Beckwith, a swimming coach
Change layer
Observed version timeline
-
1
Adam Riches: The Captain review – the extraordinary glory of a ‘half man, half fish’ Victorian hero
Summerhall, Edinburgh An endurance test for a standup already starring in a fringe hit, this show resurrects the man who drilled the first ever cross-Channel swimmer ‘Who are these people that do what [the rest of us] cannot?” Adam Riches ’ solo play The Captain teases at the daredevil spirit, incarnate here in Capt Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the Channel unaided. Riches plays Fred Beckwith, a swimming coach
Changed fieldstitlebylinedescriptionTextcontentTextsourcePublishedAtsourceUpdatedAtsectionimageUrltags- Version SHA-256
8171cb90e8c9...050e62- Capture SHA-256
eb526ceb8cc8...06815a
Interpretation layer
Labels with declared origins
Publisher categories are copied from source metadata. Machine signals report observable wording or format and do not determine truth, intent, ethics, or wrongdoing.
- machine content-type Analysis or opinion observable-rules-v1 / 70% rule confidence
- machine language-signal Investigation language observable-rules-v1 / 65% rule confidence
- publisher category Adam Riches rss-category
- publisher category Comedy rss-category
- publisher category Culture rss-category
- publisher category Edinburgh festival rss-category
- publisher category Edinburgh festival 2026 rss-category
- publisher category Sport rss-category
- publisher category Stage rss-category
- publisher category Summerhall rss-category
- publisher category Swimming rss-category
- publisher category Theatre rss-category
Public response layer
Reception snapshots
Comment counts and samples remain absent until a lawful, source-specific capture method is reviewed. Absence is recorded instead of estimated.
Evidence layer
Capture provenance
- Capture ID
- #2684
- Observed
- 26 Aug 2026, 08:14 UTC
- HTTP result
- 200 / parsed
- Raw payload
- 480,339 bytes, private gzip evidence
- Collector
- news-ledger/0.1
- Public boundary
- metadata and excerpt