One of my most vivid childhood memories is the regular spot on Andy Williams' TV show, in which a bear would ring the great man's doorbell and ask if he had any cookies.

The answer would invariably be a less-than-mild-mannered "No". Well, maybe you had to be there.

Three and a half decades on, Andy Williams' show boasted ten musicians, four backing singers, great tunes, fabulous lighting and, of course, Andy Williams. If there was no bear, it was one of the evening's few disappointments.

Williams is 78, and if occasionally he sounds it, it's only on the easy bits.

The places where you might expect him to show his age - the high notes and the long notes - are where he shows he's still got what it takes. Scaling the peaks of Brian Wilson's formidable God Only Knows, his voice was like a force of nature.

Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Solitaire, Happy Heart, Can't Get Used To Losing You, Moon River - all the hits were there.

Among the many highlights was a magnificent rendition of MacArthur Park, Williams and his band pouring their hearts and souls into Jimmy Webb's ludicrously pretentious yet achingly beautiful mini pop opera.

Perhaps the greatest tour de force was Music To Watch Girls By, the subject of a comic interlude which started with a screening of that old Fiat Punto ad - the one about the girl driving round Rome to an Andy Williams soundtrack, fuming at her boyfriend's blatant ogling of the signorinas.

She finally stops the car, calls over a random bloke and gives him a big, tonguey snog.

In the alternative version which followed, the random bloke becomes Williams.

Not only does he get a snog, he also gets to drive off with the lady in question. Good, that, if not quite as amusing as a bear scrounging cookies.

The remarkable thing, though, was hearing the man sing Music To Watch Girls By - effortlessly stylish and without the getout clause of a lower key - immediately after two runthroughs of the 1967 original.

Most singers would baulk at evoking such comparisons with their younger selves. Andy Williams, however, is not most singers.