He is full of such charm and bonhomie that I really want to believe what Gyles Brandreth is telling me.

“I am only doing this tour so I can play Birmingham Town Hall, you know,” he admits. “I am doing 44 other dates just to get to you.”

I’m sure you say that about all the venues on your one-man tour, Gyles.

“No, really,” he insists. “I did this show in Edinburgh last summer and it was a big success, so the producer asked if I’d like to do some theatre dates.

“I said ‘I’m very busy but I want to play Birmingham Town Hall’.

“He said ‘You can’t just do that’, so I said ‘OK I’ll do four to five dates for you as long as Birmingham is among them’. He came back and said he’d booked 45 dates!

“It was at Birmingham Town Hall that Oscar Wilde had his greatest triumph, during a lecture tour in 1882.

“He wanted to come to Birmingham as the city was a centre of the Arts and Crafts movement and Pre-Raphaelites. He told the audience ‘I will talk on any subject you suggest’ and a man said ‘Will you talk about the Queen?’, to which he replied ‘Her Majesty is not a subject’.

“I have come to fulfil the contract between Oscar Wilde and the people of Birmingham, because I will talk about the Queen.

“That’s the truth. I’m following in his footsteps.”

I suspect he may be embellishing the truth, but who cares when he can spin a yarn with such style?

Gyles has been described as Britain’s best raconteur, and is putting his talents to use in The One To One Show.

“The title is a nod to my work on The One Show on BBC1, but is also because the show is about the people I have had the privilege of meeting, one to one.

“I act out our encounters, so I will bring everyone from Richard Whiteley and John Gielgud to Michael Jackson to the stage. I was stuck in a lift with Michael. I’ll show you him trying to teach me how to moonwalk.

“Half the show is about the entertainment world and the second half is about politics. I lift the lid on Westminster and do a section about all the Prime Ministers I’ve met, from Harold Macmillan onwards.

“It’s a bit indiscreet but good humoured, I hope. People who feature in the show have occasionally turned up – Jeffrey Archer was in the audience at Edinburgh and laughed.