BACK in the day, I was a huge fan of Jasper Carrott, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen him on TV, so Iwas delighted to have the chance to review his return to the stage.

The septuagenarian OBE was accompanied at York Barbican on Monday by the impressionist and trained actor Alistair McGowan and I was wondering how that pairing would pan out – would they become some kind of double act? In fact they split the show – and equally the laughs- in half, with McGowan first to appear.

Introducing himself by way of a Richard Madeley impression, McGowan’s impressions romped around the comedy circuit, with some great one-liners; John Bishop selecting his best and worst Beatles songs, the Dara O’Brien impression being at its unintelligible best and a superb impression of Jo Brand as the voice of Alexa.

Sprinkled lightly with a slew of local references – Selby, the Trans Pennine Express that disappointed his gender fluid tour manager – he got the audience going nicely, as Jasper Carrott noted in his line on entry: “I said warm them up, not boil them."

Carrott’s comedy is a mix of material about his advancing age and nods to his past top-billing TV success. Musing on being asked why he’s no longer on TV, he comes up with “I can’t cook” as the answer. Although his delivery and gags can be smutty and he doesn’t shy away from swearing, he is in no way as savage and foul mouthed as the current crop of TV comedians and is probably right in his belief that Celebrity Masterchef or something similar would be his only way back.

His age-related comedy is wonderful, and with an audience profile that reflected his own longevity, he was right on the money with his Preparation H on Facebook gags; the delights or otherwise of grandchildren and the perils of trying to remember which way the electric gates open when driving up to them.

This was a great evening’s entertainment, to a very nearly full house, that made you think those TV executives might be missing a trick.