Experienced broadcaster and comedian Griff Rhys Jones – star of BBC TV’s Smith & Jones, Not The Nine O’clock News and Three Men In A Boat – entertained a packed out Regent Theatre with personal anecdotes, memories and stories from 40 years of travelling and reporting.

Halfway through a three-month UK tour, Rhys Jones landed in Christchurch with the inevitable mention of “mild weather” and “£300,000 beach huts”.

The first half of this smooth show featured overhead footage of Rhys Jones’ TV highlights, with revealing humorous anecdotes about the making of the programmes. Travel shows about climbing mountains in Scotland, kayaking in Wales, and dealing with crocodiles in Australia, emphasised the bravery and professionalism of the cameramen, walking backwards along snowy mountain ridges.

Filming Rhys Jones window cleaning 30 floors up New York skyscrapers showed not only the gutsy bravery of the camera crews, but also the professional sense of humour of the programme makers.

Rhys Jones has a lively, affable, self-deprecating style in presenting these personal anecdotes, embroidered with a convincing talent for local accents to colour the stories.

The second half of the show features Rhys Jones as “the angry traveller”, ranting about budget airlines with their “speedy boarder” philosophy, their labyrinthine duty-free travesties, and young travellers’ “gap year decades”.

With endearing and insightfully humorous comments, Rhys Jones concluded his show by plugging his new book and imminent appearance on TV’s Bake Off.