"Anyone here I killed?"

Henry has been waiting to meet his God for 468 years. A time spent in purgatory, as a mere side show entertainment, standing before audiences who are rank smelling and worse still seated in his presence.

"I will not be judged by you if God won't judge me."

Ross Gurney-Randall gave a compelling performance in this one-man play.

His ability as a king to maintain the attention of his subjects was sorely tested on a sweltering evening when the ambient sound from the pub opposite did scream out for an interval.

In the telling of a famous life so weighty with historical fact it was this audience engagement that elevated the piece from being a 70-minute lecture.

Henry's playful interaction was executed with courteousness rather than the menace one might expect from a monarch reputedly to have murdered 80,000 of his subjects.

By no means a comedy, though with humorous moments, this was a king we felt empathy with rather than feared - "You cannot help but find me fascinating".

He may not have been a conquering monarch, such as Henry V, but he has the consolation of enduring popularity, an attitude we can now so easily embrace.

This Henry was indeed a celebrity among kings.

Three stars