COMETH the hour cometh Brian Conley. His combination of childish inanity, raw singing power and old-fashioned endearing entertainer lifted a good-looking show to a finale worthy of 100 years of entertainment.

Political correctness is certainly not his forte as he introduced a loudhailer to announce that there was a gay in the building and asked the "old people" in the audience if they'd met Elvis "well you will soon". But, somehow, Conley retrieves each "did he really say that?" moment to keep a packed house laughing.

A far better show than September's birthday effort saw Darlington-based TV heroes Darrien Wright and Zoe Birkett show exactly why millions voted for them on talent shows.

Highlight of the first half was The Krankies who now base their act around Wee Jimmy' really being a female with a bus pass.

"Why don't you go to school?" "Because I'm a 60- year-old woman".

A tribute to Darlington Operatic Society's support for the Civic came in the form of a West Side Story pastiche. Billy Pearce's clever comedy routine was followed by a slightly tired Jane McDonald, who admitted she'd arrived at 4am straight from Loose Women co-host Coleen Nolan's wedding.

The well-drilled Laine Theatre Arts singers and dancers did the openers and closers in timehonoured style. The second half saw Zoe Birkett in fine voice along with the ever improving Journey South from Middlesbrough. In between came the eerie and astonishing ventriloquism of Paul Zerdin before Conley threw in everything from Jolson to fireeating, and burning himself, to end a pulsating evening.

Conley is going on, hopefully, to star in the West End with a revival of The Music Man. He expressed hopes that the Civic audiences will keep the building alive for another 100 years. One thing is for sure, someone somewhere needs to launch an entertainment channel on cable, satellite or internet to allow us to watch these kinds of performers on TV again outside the Royal Variety Performance otherwise we're doomed to dancing rugby players and Simon Cowell's sneer for eternity.