Despite cultivating the persona of a bitter misfit, Parton seems, at heart, to be an endearingly old-fashioned sort of a comic.

Not that he shares the usual discredited flaws of the frilly-shirtedbrigade, but he has certainly inherited their compulsion to always go direct for the gag.

Perhaps surprisingly, this can be as much as a liability as a benefit, as weaker jokes are inelegently shoe-horned next to stronger material without thought to the logic of the set, the consistency of the character, the niceties of quality control.

This leads, ienevitably, to something of a patchy set - although, it has to be said, not an unenjoyable one. There is strong material here, and a couple of stonking lines, which works best when it retains the integrity of the character.