Mark Steel, best known for his comedy lectures on Radio 4, is an intelligent comedian with a fast line of chat.

Perhaps giving him an hour and a quarter was a bit too much as, like any lecture, 40 minutes is about the right length. But he hit his targets well.

In his sights were New Labour, the Royal family, growing up in Swanley - a town so barren of entertainment that even Gravesend looked exciting - the Sixties and Seventies and the generation gap.

He opened a little hesitantly and seemed a bit nervous, in spite of a warm welcome from a packed theatre.

Stand-up comedy is not easy but once he hit his stride, Steel poured out a stream of one liners and painted some pretty far-fetched pictures, not least of which was a line about President Bush talking in Teletubby language.

His digs at politicians were direct and well timed, pinpointing beautifully the rush to war with Iraq and telling of the comments of the elderly Afghan king returning to his home and saying: "Once upon a time there used to be buildings here."