NO MERE game show host, Shane Richie has grabbed superstardom by the throat with a talent so extraordinary that it should lead him down the road to greatness.

What a shame, then, to see him crucify himself with his own crudities to such an extent that it all but wrecked a performance that would have otherwise been described as inspired.

Jaggeresque genius was interspersed with one and two-fingered salutes to the audience - some of whom walked out of the Blackpool Opera House in protest.

On a night when even that master of muckiness, compere Jim Davidson, was on his Sunday-best behaviour for the Lord Delfont Gala Tribute Show, Richie was blasting obscenities from the hip only to shoot himself in the foot.

With a blow-up doll antic and lewd remarks about his backing group for the night, the Nolan Sisters - one of whom is his wife - this was the ultra-coarse humour of so-called adult shows.

No place did it have, therefore, in a family show claimed to be the Royal Variety Performance of the North-West.

For family show it was with Blackpool comedian Mick Miller taking the first-half honours with well-honed gags and the polished style we have come to expect of him.

Potted versions of summer shows from Little and Large, Lily Savage, Central Pier's Peggy Sue cast and Darren Day taking a Summer Holiday break to go back to being an impressionist kept things flowing along nicely.

We had an excellent excerpt from Richie and the cast of his smash-hit musical Grease, but by then it was too late to rescue him from his self-dug slurry of smut.

That greatest of showmen Lord Delfont would have been proud as Punch that the show which bears his name raised £40,000 for the Entertainment Artistes Benevolent Fund.

Richie's crudeness on a family evening out would have him turning in his grave.

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