Fortunately, the amount of surgery needed to repair my ‘split-sides’ after viewing the ‘Christmas compilation tape’ of The Sunday Late Night Project was not as extensive as I had feared. However, let me tell you that in terms of laugh-out-loud, uproarious fun, this first-class DVD takes a lot of beating. While I had enjoyed viewing the series occasionally on TV, time permitting of course, the benefit of the compilation is that only the most outrageously funny parts have been included in its 90 minutes.

Naturally, this is time that passes almost too quickly, when the viewer is allowed to indulge in so much hilarity, which comes in sharply witty snippets that emerge from the mouths of the slightly tubby, long-haired and exceptionally perceptive Bristolian, Justin Lee Collins, and his sidekick, the mouthy, judiciously flippant and no less amusingly camp, Alan Carr. To be frank, I can take or leave the ‘Chatty Man’, as he refers to himself currently, but paired with his apparent soul-mate Collins, rather than thinking of the North-East’s Ant & Dec (Ant’s always on the left) as the ‘new Morecambe & Wise’, I would urge you to label Carr and Collins in this way.

The manner in which the DVD commences would bolster that premise, as they are both in bed, reviewing the contents of the DVD being watched, which is an interesting diversion. To view this pair dressing-up and impersonating their guests on the TV programme (male or female, there seems to be little preference) is screamingly amusing in itself but to listen to their amazingly witty and self-effacing banter and witness the outstanding creativity is sure to have you in stitches. It did for me. There is a sauciness to their approach that seems, at times, to fly some distance above the heads of their guests, which augments that humour immensely. Sexual references are plentiful but are never taken as insulting or demeaning and it is almost as though Collins and Carr have managed to embody that cartoon distance from their famous guests that exists in every episode of ‘Family Guy’ (why are they never sued for character assassinations).

It is indeed a confident and clever device to insert liberally the fall-about gaffes and ‘miserable pronuncifications’ that proliferate in this disc’s content. It is also a joy to see that some of the A-listers joining in with the joke actually do get it (Welsh gravely warbler, Tom Jones, being an almost notable exception). There is a smattering of a few choice swear words, which might preclude some younger members of the family from joining in with the laughter, but, apart from that, it is just one tear-shedding jape after another. Well worth the expense and effort to buy a copy.