Bill Jones brought a unique brand of melancholy to the closing weekend of Brighton Fringe with his gloomy take on love lost in Graveside Manner.

The dark surrounds of the Basement was the perfect setting for a show about one man’s poetic misgivings over his girlfriend Mavis who left him for a love rival named Dave.

Jones revelled in the bitterness of post-breakup and carried her around with him in the form of a portrait. A poem Hyacinth began with lyrical images of dank and dark places of rest but it was not long before Jones was back to lamenting about Mavis and her cavorting in flash cars with Dave.

But it was not all doom and gloom, Jones made you laugh with his witty one liners and sought solace in the form of his support group Melancholics' Anonymous and the perfectly titled Glummer magazine.

Even Jones’ foray into children’s poetry focused on the death of hedgehogs, mayflies and cats while he worried that the tune was too upbeat for bedtime.

To close the audience was invited for a feel-good hug but in Jones’ dysfunctional world even this comfort had to be done at a safe distance.

Three stars