“The Voice” is the sort of brassy hyperbole that boxing promoters toy with between puffs of cigars. Russell Watson’s sales figures have certainly lived up to the grand claims that he is the Everyman tenor for our times, but the northerner’s unassuming stage persona suggests “The Lad” would be a much better nickname. If Andrea Bocelli caters to the conventional sub-operatic market, Watson is every mum’s ideal son-in-law: tidy, well-mannered and always sure to stay on the straight and narrow.

Having recovered from surgery for a brain tumour, he savoured his return to the arena. “I’m feeling much better, love, thank you very much,” was his reply to a worried query from one of his demure female admirers. Although he admitted that he was suffering from a cold, he still had the stamina to deliver a two-hour performance showcasing his lounge album, That’s Life .

As you can guess from the title, Sinatra looms large over the recording, Watson making a creditable job of covering You Make Me Feel So Young , It Was a Very Good Year and the dreariest Sixties hit of them all, Strangers in the Night . What you don’t get is any particular sense of individuality; Watson settles for suave phrasing pitched halfway between Vegas and one of our very own out-of-town super-casinos.

His lack of charisma was a little unnerving at times. As a result, the show tended to meander. Two brief guest appearances by the soprano Natasha Marsh added to the sense of drift. Not that the fans seemed at all dismayed.

When Watson interrupted Volare to stroll amidst the stalls, he indulged in some Peter Kay-like humour, delaying the final phrase until he had finished glad-handing the ladies and signing autographs.

The operatic sequences, including a brash singalong of Funiculi, Funiculà , were mercifully free of Sarah Brightman-style kitsch.

At the close he was joined by the soul singer Alexander O’Neal, his fellow contestant from the celebrity duet show Just the Two of Us . To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before is pure schlock, but done with enough brio, as it was here, it is no more objectionable than hearing the Chairman sing My Way .

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