"Gosh, what a nice reception," exclaimed John Sergeant as he made his low-key and discreet entrance on to the Theatre Royal stage.

Right from the start, the modest former chief political correspondent for the BBC appeared humble, humorous and well aware his career has occasionally been a case of being in the right place at the right time.

The blurb on the back of his autobiography - which this tour was promoting - described him as having "a wealth of funny anecdotes featuring the key political figures of our time."

And the evening was exactly that, a stream of incredibly funny and informative insights into the machinations of national and international politics.

Sergeant is intelligent and kind - apparently, being "happy, charming and friendly" is the way to be funny and win over an audience.

Not that this was an issue during the evening - the theatre echoed with laughter for the length of the two-hour show.

Sergeant has met almost every major political figure of the past 30 years and was not afraid to give the audience exactly what it wanted- namely dishing the dirt.

He told all about the likes of Alistair Campbell ("I miss him like you might miss a torturer"), "my old chum" Margaret Thatcher ("susceptible to flattery"), Tony Blair ("good sense of humour") and Jeffrey Archer ("made a fool of the legal system").

Sergeant had a fatherly air, which must go a long way to explaining his success.

After only two hours in his company, we believed anything this man told us.

Hopefully, he may be appearing on our screens again in a more satirical capacity soon.

He admits he is very tempted to replace Angus Deayton on the BBC's Have I Got News For You?

"I am a great fan of Paul Merton and Ian Hislop," said Sergeant in reply to a question from the audience.

"Am I prepared to replace Angus? Am I prepared to take on all those women and all that money? I would very much like to do it but we now await the BBC's decision. The BBC's indecision is final."

Review by Ellie Evans, features@theargus.co.uk