Rather like used car salesmen, illusionists can come across as a bit flash.

Dynamo, real name Stephen Frayne, does not.

For a down-to-earth boy from Bradford who, lonely and bullied as a child, taught himself card tricks for solace, deception just isn't his bag.

His intention is to transform people's lives through magic – which all might sound a bit trite if he wasn't quite so convincing.

Utterly devoid of shtick, even the name Dynamo is kind of guileless.

Of course it could all just be a great big act – after all, we know that magic can't really happen, so where does the performance end?

But with Dynamo there is no act – only the performance, and what a performance it is.

Fleet of fingers, things appear out of nowhere, disappear, fit into things they really ought not and move to impossible place.

How does he do it? We can guess, assume, spend hours working it out.

Fact is we want to be fooled, and when Dynamo does it, all the more so – because for a moment, he allows us to believe that it's real, which takes the darkness out of life and creates a world where anything can happen.

A bit like love – which is really what this show is all about.

Four stars