When John Shuttleworth, versatile singer/organist from Sheffield, walked on and announced he was struggling to finish a Soother’s throat lozenge, I knew everything was all right with the world.

Graham Fellows has been touring his comedy character for 30 years and, despite a poorly throat, he gave his Worthing fans what they have come to expect – songs played badly on his PSS Yamaha keyboard and stories about Ken Worthington, his next door neighbour and sole agent.

Mary, John’s wife, has banned him and his organ to the shed. So John is on a 40-date tour – the Out Of Our Sheds tour – asking the nation, “What’s better, the village, the town or the shed?”

If you were to live next door to the Shuttleworth’s, l suspect you would avoid having contact with them at all costs. John is utterly tedious: “Life is like a salad bar,” he sings, “or is it?”

There are John Shuttleworths all over this country – middle-aged men who spend too much time in their sheds. Perhaps people keep coming and laughing because he is so endearingly English and familiar, like a harmless uncle. A total of 300 people left The Connaught smiling, while John left clutching a bottle of Buttercup Syrup.