Tim Brooke-Taylor, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

TIM Brooke-Taylor has been at the heart of British comedy for 50 years. Remember The Goodies, the surreal sitcom which dominated TV screens throughout the 1970s? Tim was the one with the blond hair and Union Jack waistcoat (he still has both). He has been a regular on Radio 4’s marvellously batty I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue (he’s the one with the impeccable musical timing). But he’s done much more and An Audience with Tim Brooke-Taylor at the Brewery was an ideal way to highlight his achievements.

The show featured Tim in relaxed conversation with broadcaster Chris Searle, interspersed with anecdotes and film clips from his career. The evening showed him to be a warm, modest and engaging entertainer with an astonishing track record, from radio and TV, to live theatre and even narrating a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.

Tim emerged in the early 1960s comic tidal wave from Cambridge University, along with John Cleese, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Graham Chapman. Several joined forces in the furiously inventive and irreverent radio show I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, which ran from 1963 to 1973 before morphing into I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue (“which required less writing”).

TV work includes The Frost Report and At Last The 1948 Show, a direct forerunner of Monty Python. Tim could easily have been a member of Python but The Goodies happened instead. There followed 12 years of energetic, comic genius and endearing silliness which led Tim to achieve one of his two great ambitions, appearing on Top of The Pops with Pan’s People.

And the other ambition? “To score a goal for England. Probably a bit unlikely now.” On the basis of his varied career so far - I wouldn’t like to bet on it.

Colin Shelbourn