comic

That has changed the relationship that comics with long careers have with their audience.

When it comes to the world of comic invention and linguistic pyrotechnics, few dramatists of the 20th century could match the scope and sustained success of British writer Tom Stoppard, who has died aged 88.

The resulting duet is in fact one of the score’s comic highlights.

The entire series, written by the clever Ben Elton, extrapolated what little is known about the Bard into an ingenious series of perfectly plausible comic dilemmas, and an occasional unexpected dramatic one.

The comic from Bolton, 52, is launching his Better Late Than Never tour that begins in December and ends at the AO Arena in Manchester in August.