IT TOOK a little while but he got me. I'd been out the night before and had done a full day at work. It was Tuesday night so I was not making a proper night of it. I was not "out out", as Micky Flanagan's fans would understand it. In short, I wasn't an easy win for any comedian.

But I was laughing along all night to Flanagan's constant stream of funny stories. About an hour in a joke which I'd better not repeat in detail totally got me and I was properly guffawing. It was that kind of laughing where you can't breathe properly and if I had been drinking I would have accidentally spat it out.

The cheeky Londonder was on absolutely fantastic form. You get the real feeling that he loves it. He explained at the start that he was "absolutely loaded" these days. But we were told to forget that and treat him as if he was still one of us. The thing is that he still talks about his days growing up in an East End council flat, the people he used to work with in a factory, as if it was yesterday.

I'm not going to try to repeat any of his jokes here as it wouldn't do them justice. It's the flavour that he puts into it. The one that got me most was about some of the bodily changes men go through after middle age. He's back at the centre next month and if you want a "proper" laugh, as Micky might say, he's your man. Unless you are into Quinoa and you are easily offended, by the way.