AS Dame Berwick Kaler’s sidekick in the annual Theatre Royal panto, Martin Barrass has always had a good line in one-liners. It is great to see none of that sense of fun has deserted him following his horrific motorcycle accident last September.

Describing his near-death experience, he told The Press’s arts editor Charles Hutchinson he had never actually had a ‘Jacob’s ladder’ moment.

“Everything went bright white and there was this man in a pinstriped suit with Mr Whippy hair, looking like Mr Grimsdale (from the Norman Wisdom films) in a job centre,” he said. “So the Pearly Gates are in fact an incredibly brightly-lit job centre.”

Light as he might make of his accident, he did come too close to those Pearly Gates for comfort.

He ‘died’ twice, and air ambulance paramedics who airlifted him to hospital gave him only a one per cent chance of survival. “I’m now part of an exclusive club: someone who has died and come back.”

He himself was only told how close he’d come to death when he visited the Yorkshire Air Ambulance headquarters in May to say thank you. He’ll be showing his appreciation again when he hosts a charity cricket match at Heworth on August 20, all the proceeds of which will go to the air ambulance.

That’s great to see. And it is great to see him making such a full recovery, too. He is now preparing to play the lead role in The Kings of Hull - a specially-commissioned John Godber play for Hull UK City of Culture which tells the story of three generations of the King family.

“They make Shameless look like Last of the Summer Wine,” he said. There you go. Another of those great one-liners. Welcome back, Martin.