HE HOMED straight in on 'Chris', the very obviously middle-class man with the jumper thrown round his shoulders.

If there's one thing Jason Cook - writer of the sitcom Hebburn broadcast by BBC2 - loves, that's a character.

He was bang on the money when he asked: "Are you in accounts or project management?" The answer, it transpired, was finance director and there, along with 'Sailing Nick', who hailed from the famous maritime town of Harrogate, Cook had his props in place for the funniest of nights in Hexham's Queen's Hall.

Funniest, that is, bar one. For this was the return visit of Jason Cook's Comedy Cafe and if you've missed both, honestly, get a grip!

A regional treasure, yes, but this man should be a national treasure (Why isn't he on Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You and every other programme where his razor-sharp wit would shine?) and he's serving up an a la carte repast on your doorstep.

Not to be confused with some of the other inferior comedy cafes that have passed through Hexham in the past decade or two, this is on another level entirely.

He'd brought with him Jimmy McGee, just back from a tour of Australia, Hebburn co-star Chris Ramsey, who'd just played to a 7000-strong crowd at Newcastle's Metro Radio Arena, fellow Geordie Rat Pack singer and comedian Glen Roughead, and the headline act, Paul Sinha, who has several claims to fame.

"It's not a bad life being the only gay Asian doctor working on a television quiz show," said Sinha, before acknowledging his Indian parents had been seriously underwhelmed by his decision to pack in medicine in favour of stand-up comedy.

They hailed, after all, from a culture in which being gay placed you just below a leper and just above a gay leper. "And let's be honest, a gay leper is no use to anybody."

His appointment in 2011 as one of the Chasers on the hit ITV show The Chase had probably reassured them he wasn't going to starve any time soon, though, and his decision to hang up his stethoscope had "probably saved 5000 lives", so it was for the best.

Jimmy McGee was the posh boy who derided the hang-ups and obsessions of his peers, Chris Ramsey was his mirror image, the lad from the rough end of town gutted to learn the squirrel he'd been so chuffed to find in his garden was actually a rat with a flamboyant tail, and the dulcet-toned Glen Roughead rang the changes performing some rapping duets with Cook.

If there was any weak point of the night, it came as the pair sang increasingly risque lyrics, tittering like schoolboys seeing how far they could push an aged aunt. It was out of kilter with a night of otherwise top-class entertainment.

Jason Cook's Comedy Cafe will be returning to Hexham some time later this summer apparently. Honestly, don't miss it again.