Best of British Variety, Pavilion, Bournemouth

A TRADITIONAL variety show starring some of the slickest most popular entertainers of our generation.. no wonder this was an outstanding triumph.

With so many class acts packed into a three-hour evening of entertainment mixing music, magic and comedy, this felt like the next best thing to a live Royal Variety Performance.

OK, no royalty was present, but we felt terribly patriotic from the outset as many members of the audience stood for the National Anthem.

The billing paid homage to TV variety's golden era of the 70s and 80s so it was very much a nostalgia trip too as we met many of its stars.

Frank "It's a cracker!" Carson is still the master of quick one-liners and an unrelenting string of gags and put-downs that linked the show together as the old-style compere.

Wacky Irish comic Jimmy Cricket is just superb at playing on his supposed Irish stupidity, especially with his Letters from My Mammy. Highly visual and bizarre, he brought the house down demonstrating how different musicians eat soup.

The Brotherhood of Man rekindled memories of when we actually use to win the Eurovision Song Contest performing Save All Your Kisses for Me (with 1986 choreography and costumes) in a sparkling music section.

The Krankies remain an absolutely unique and hilarious double act - so wrong but so right in what they do!

Britain's master magician Paul Daniels literally gave an electrifying performance - as his "victims" will vouch and amazed us placing a £20 note in a nut, within an egg, within a lemon!

The icing on the cake was Britain's best comedy double act Cannon and Ball whose comedic timing and craft is second to none. I cried with laughter from start to finish.

There was no grand final to it all resulting in the audience sitting baffled expecting more as the curtain fell but this show had delivered everything it promised and more.