“Everybody should know how to pleasure themselves in a safe and sustainable way,” Dr Phil Hammond kept reiterating.

With unerring ease, Hammond chatted and joked for almost two hours as though he was with his friends in the pub.

He covered all manner of subject matter relating to health, from hospitals, marriage and embarrassing illnesses to the advantages of getting a Labrador.

Firstly, Hammond focused on the election, informing us: “Everything we do is about the responsible use of power.” Speaking of Gordon Brown he revealed: “I’ve never seen anyone look that bad and still be vertical.”

The broadcaster and still practising GP was relaxed as he shared comical revelations from his early career in medicine and his escapades while studying at Cambridge, admitting he only wanted to become a doctor because he believed it would enable him to pull. It was there he learnt to “put on the mask of relaxed brilliance”.

Hammond’s gags about bodies and medicine were sometimes explicit but never in bad taste. However, he admitted, “Keeping a straight face is the hardest thing a doctor has to learn.” The doctor was definitely on top form.