Carlton Kirby's True Tales of the Tour de France @ Gosforth Civic Theatre - June 23

Eurosport cycling commentator Carlton Kirby's UK tour delighted a sold-out Gosforth Civic Theatre with his hilarious reflections on his 25 years commentating on the world's greatest cycle race - the Tour de France - as well as other classic bike races. Widescreen images at the back of the stage were shown to emphasise various points of interest.

Seemingly every UK venue is/was sold-out apart from Taunton. The audience was, agewise, not unlike a jazz audience - to qualify as a youngster you had to be under 50!

Indeed cycling and jazz have much in common. Both require intense training/practice as well as the ability to improvise to extricate yourself from difficult situations such as cycling up an Alpine pass faster than your competitors or negotiating a new and complex set of chord changes.

Kirby proved to be a natural raconteur as he spoke of his fellow broadcasters' idiosyncrasies. Sean Kelly in particular was the butt of his urinal humour. Kirby's sidekick, Duncan Steer, fed the questions which, after the interval, had been submitted by members of the audience.

Kirby's replies were witty and the questions themselves suggested that a large percentage of the audience were Eurosport viewers - particularly in July.

Kirby is also the author of a couple of cycling books that seemed to be selling well during the interval. 

The rapturous applause at the end was well-earned. Lance