It is always nice to be flattered and Rich Hall knows how to get an English audience to warm to him by favouring us limeys above our American cousins.

The Anglophile tells the Corn Exchange that while “Brits have opinions, Americans have bumper stickers” and congratulates us little islanders for our dry humour which means that he never knows if we are being complimentary or sarcastic.

His affection for England means that he can rib our great, and lesser, institutions with one hilarious song about a debauched night at a J D Wetherspoons pub.

Not that the grouchy comic is buttering up his audience.

Far from it, no audience member is spared his sharp tongue including one straggler “wandering aimlessly down the aisle” on her return from the bar who was described by Hall as the “closest we’ll come to any dancing tonight”.

Tonight Hall is backed by a tight band who rattle out a serious of hilarious tunes including one tune bemoaning the loss of the bar jukebox which culminates in a country-fied cover of another English institution - naff Rick Astley.

What really impresses in the set is the feeling of spontaneity with Hall thinking up lyrics for songs about audience members on the spot to suit their names, professions and the circumstances of their first dates.

Hall is loudly cheered at the end of his 80-minute set showing that England loves him just as much as he loves England.