CHRISTOPHER SMITH Starting from the the city, Tom Watson is taking his one man Baron Munchausen Show on a tour of local pubs.

CHRISTOPHER SMITH

Starting from the Golden Star, Tom Watson is taking his one man Baron Munchausen Show on a tour of local pubs.

For an hour of good-humoured entertainment, it takes some beating – especially as it's free, except at venues where a meal is going to be served.

Generally, though, it is simply a matter of ordering a pint and sipping it down with the porkies. And what porkies!

These had been fattened up, since the 18th century in fact, when they were brought over from Hanover, and now they are served up again with crackling wit and bare-faced sauce. Just a chair by way of a prop.

Cream breeches and an officer's velvet coat create the character, with a bit of help from a moustache that still curls in defiance at the passing of time.

The Baron swears that every word is true, but with a twinkle in his eye. Time and again, “nevertheless” is the signal for the start of another whopper.

Heard the one about the horse that just couldn't stop drinking?

Got cut in half going through the portcullis, what went in one end just gushed out again.

Even better, what about the skein of ducks caught on a string baited with bacon? Now, there was a flight of fancy for you.

So tell it to the Marines and catch up with this production by David Gwyn Harris's Loose Cannon Company at a pub near you. It goes down a treat.

t The tour also calls at Hoxne, Wicklewood, Heydon, Lessingham, Barford, Reedham, Wymondham and Southwold, until December 12.