If ever there was an entertainment name in the news this week (aside from those being arrested), that name was Reginald D Hunter.
The black American comic's TV persona is a cuddly bear of a man, sometimes unlucky in love.
Last week the Professional Footballers' Association got to grips with his persona away from the sanitised world of pre-watershed television – and afterwards told the world they didn't like it. You can take your pick of who to believe about any ground rules on language and subject matter of that awards night set.
Reg spent the first section of his show in Nottingham setting the record straight. He's relaxed about the affair, saying that no-one from the PFA has actually been in touch since, and that the sensitive language under scrutiny is the language of his life, his work and his thoughts.
Perhaps an intelligent, astute and thoughtful comic was too much for the footballers and their WAGS. He certainly went down well in Nottingham, where Reg invited us to look at our own lives and attitudes in between the laughs.
Moving from the PFA “lies” to his view of the Pistoruis whodunnit and his “bionic spatulas”, he wondered whether women think with their emotions or their intellect. He spoke of the Philpotts and their 17 children and contrasted violence against women with what some believe is an “acceptable” violence within the pages of recent hit romantic novels (you know the ones).
Reg believes Jimmy Savile and Margaret Thatcher both “won”, and asks “If you were offered a pill that meant the worst thing you ever did wasn't found out until ten years after you died, would you take it?”
More thoughtful and less vulgar than the last time he visited Nottingham, this confessional set was perhaps very welcome therapy for comedian and audience alike.
