With his blisteringly confident delivery and voiceover-quality tones, Branch finds it easy to command the respect of an audience.

Though a relative newcomer, he owns the stage like a comic with five times his experience ­ and is skilled at illustrating his fluid set with little character sketches, be it sullen teenagers taking grown-up jobs, or Neil Armstrong's bizarre speech impediment.

He employs his smart middle-class persona to good effect, and while one or two ideas slightly overstay their welcome, that's most definitely the exception rather than the rule.

The jokes are pretty good, too, and he's building up quite an arsenal of surefire routines.

It's the delivery that's dynamite, though, and his move to the professional circuit will surely be a baby step, rather than one giant leap.