Magician Paul Daniels came up with an ABC of stage presentation at the Royal Hippodrome on Saturday – appeal, banter and charisma, but ironically there was not enough magic.

He showed amazing sleight-of-hand and produced a baffling illusion but there were not sufficient tricks, and most of them we had seen before. He also spent too long in setting them up.

Fortunately, his wife and talented assistant Debbie McGee made an excellent contribution. She provided the glamour with several stunning costumes and even performed some magic herself.

Much of the show was taken up with Paul talking about tricks. He gave mini-lectures on the disappearing hankie routine and the three-card trick.

One member of the audience he coaxed up on stage turned out by pure chance to be local impressionist Drew Cameron, whose Del Trotter got a big laugh.

Paul provided plenty of comical moments, such as when he used two blackboards and referred to them as Victorian iPads.

The 75-year-old former TV favourite was in his element when setting fire to a fireman’s £10 note and doing a spot of amusing mind-reading. But the show lacked the dramatic impact provided by Penn And Teller or Derren Brown.