Alistair McGowan began the tour of his one-man show The One and Many on Friday in front of a capacity home crowd.

The audience was treated to a dazzling series of impressions – ranging from Graham Norton to James Mason, taking in many famous names of football, TV and comedy on the way.

There was much more to the show than just impressions.

There were flights of whimsy: What if Graham Norton commentated on the boat race? What if the Prince of Wales pretended to be Welsh? What if Eddie Izzard presented a documentary about moths? There was also some sharp comic observation: As we get older do we dream of cheese instead of sex? If it’s now OK for men to cry in public, why not to fan themselves at the same time?

There were some witty poems and several monumental puns. Plus, of course, the Evesham audience got some extra jokes about local places and people thrown in for good measure. Friday night's performance by Alistair was an overwhelming success and a real coup for the Arts Centre, with Alistair giving his home town a preview of what will no doubt be a sell-out 40-date tour of the UK.

Neal Cartwright