The audience at the Royal Hippodrome are taken on a trip down memory lane in variety show Sentimental Journey.

We are treated as passengers whose train has broken down, with the rail company laying on entertainment in the form of comedy performers Barry Moon and Mike Lee, tribute singers Colin Gold and Tracey Lea (as Billy Fury and Connie Francis) and, finally, Irish stand-up Jimmy Cricket.

Cricket, no longer on television, is still a crowd favourite with his trademark wellies, marked L and R but worn on the wrong feet, ill-fitting trousers, battered hat and catchphrase: “There’s more”.

He is a naturally funny man who relies on a tried-and-tested format of phone calls and letters from his Mammy as he trots out double-meaning punchlines.

Cricket’s name on the bill has helped save the Hippodrome summer show, which looked in danger until local hoteliers stepped in to promote it by selling tickets to coach parties.

So it is surprising that he does not come on until after the interval, meaning that singers Gold and Lea are given longer spots than advisable in a first-half that relies mainly on the slick comic antics of Moon and the lively routines of The ShowTime Dancers.

It is also a mistake to give Lee the role of compere under the guise of the rail company’s Mr Fixit. This underplays his impressive Matt Monro-style singing, when the compering could be left to Moon as a bumbling station master.