Julian Clary provokes strong reactions: he's the sort of comedian you either love or loathe. Frankly I love him.

You know just the sort of outrageous stuff he'll come out with, but it is all delivered in that gentle voice so that it is practically impossible to take offence.

He is currently celebrating reaching the grand old age of 50 - "It came as a surprise to me. I thought I was about 32" – with a UK tour called Lord of the Mince which ends at the Leicester Square Theatre in London from November 19-22.

He'd recently played Dorking: "That's a funny name, like dogging crossed with snorkelling."

Clary appeared in stage in a screaming orange suit wobbling along on roller blades.

He talked about the various achievements of his life, from skydiving to reaching the final of Strictly Come Dancing and dropped a few bits of juicy insider gossip, like how he refused to go to Simon Cowell's 50th birthday bash because he couldn't bear to be in the same room as Sinitta and how Vincent and Kristina's noisy affair kept him awake at night when Strictly was on tour.

He's recently moved to live in a haunted house in Kent with his partner and their near neighbour is Paul O'Grady (cue for plenty of impressions of that famous Scouse accent).

The second half was a wonderful spoof clairvoyant act using a couple of blokes from the audience.

The songs weren't great but we all loved the show's guest stars – Valerie his little dog and the pup he adopted while on Paul O'Grady's show which turned out not to be the Jack Russell it was cracked up to be.

Neither pet, apparently, has the talent of the late Fanny the Wonderdog.

Good job age has not withered nor diminished the talent of the wonderful Mr Clary.

I actually laughed til I cried when he read extracts from the Croydon Guardian in that deadpan way of his. Never has a local paper been so funny.

Diana Eccleston

5 stars