Anyone tune into the BBC Radio New Comedy Award final on Monday night? Me neither. How could one possibly have been attracted to this search for new stand-up comedians by the material used to promote it?

The trailer for the Radio 2 show treated us to gags (so called) from three ‘comedians’. In the first (and I work from memory in all cases) the joker offered: “My parents have bought a bungalow. It has one major flaw [floor, geddit?].”

In the second, the comedienne considered the educational attainments of her offspring, building to the bathetic punchline: “I just want to know my children are cleverer than my brother’s.”

In the third, the joker objected to his having been called emotionally distant. “I’m not. My emotions are small. So they look far away.”

If this is the best that new comedy can supply, is it any wonder that the Monty Python team is emerging from retirement?

Amid the publicity surrounding this decision, I was pleased to see the attention accorded to the so-called ‘seventh Python’, Carol Cleveland. She starred in more than half of the shows, supplying the ‘phwoar’ factor then judged necessary. Happily, she has been called up for the revival.

Many years ago, as one of the organising committee of the Oxford Press Ball, I was asked to escort Carol, who was starring in something at the Playhouse, as one of our celebrity guests.

She proved a delightful companion, even happily joining in when I nerdishly launched into my favourite Python sketches.

This reminds me of the time I did a finger-jabbing Mick Jagger dance (the only dance I know) in front of his ex-wife Bianca. But that’s another story . . .