Lean, besuited and bespectacled, the wry wordsmith is on the road again, beadily observing the world from behind those trademark glasses.

John Hegley‘s latest concoction of comic poetry, stand-up, storytelling and song presents his audience with an A to Z carnival of the animals (some of which turn out to be human) and the story of a journey to Cheadle Hulme.

There is a slide show of Hegley’s likeably raw drawings, and there are sing a longs. Music comes courtesy of his mandolin or guitar, and a double bass played by Keith Moore, dressed in music-hall clown-style in loud checks and bowler.