Already a familiar figure on the BBC’s One Show, and with many other appearances on shows like QI, Room 101 and Radio 4’s Just a Minute, Gyles Brandreth is on a mission to cheer us up.

‘Seven Secrets of Happiness’, the title of his one-man show, went down a storm at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, and finally made it south to Wimborne’s Tivoli Theatre.

It’s also the title of a book that he wrote for those who couldn’t get to his show, or needed to be reminded what the seven secrets are.

With his 66th birthday imminent, Brandreth is at an age when most men are thinking of retirement, not holding the stage as a one-man act for nearly an hour and three quarters.

But he’s a man of many abilities: anyone who has been a reporter, actor, scriptwriter, author and MP is almost annoyingly talented. But annoyed is the very last thing that his near capacity audience were feeling as anecdote followed anecdote – some salacious, all of them funny.

Underlying the humour were some shrewd observations about what it takes to make us happy. For my part that would definitely include his show.

Alan Jones