After spending the first few years of his stand-up career as a marginal interest, 2010 has been the year where Mark Watson has made a big step up.

He has got his own TV show, has become a regular on the more intellectual panel shows and is now touring theatres, rather than arts centres and the top rooms of pubs.

When comedians are handed their own TV show they generally use it as an excuse to show off what they do in their live gigs, with a few celebrity guests and funny viral clips chucked in. Take 8 out of 10 Cats, which gives Jimmy Carr a chance to deliver his well-honed one liners in between rounds, or Russell Howard’s Good News, which allows Howard to go overboard with matey hyperbole over news footage.

Well, Mark Watson live is a far cry from his recently launched, Mark Watson Kicks Off. The show has Watson bantering with ex-footballers and cramming his thoughts on sport into 30- second segments; a format which doesn’t work nearly as well as his live sets, where he will talk, at considerable length, without the need for neatly crafted punch lines. When Watson is onstage, the laughs come all the time. There’s no set up and delivery, just pleasantly told anecdotes with gentle gags worked in throughout.

You find yourself laughing constantly, whether Watson is talking about spending time with his newborn son or his adventures as the spokesman for a famous brand of cider. Watson is refined in his comedy; he is not rude or aggressive in his delivery and stays well clear of the controversial material some comics seem to thrive on. So eager, in fact, is Watson not to offend anyone that he ends up giving a member of the audience a fiver as an apology for being rude about their hometown.

Both erudite and humble, Watson is tremendously funny and his show has a lovely atmosphere. He deserves every success in the future.