I have always said (what do you mean, you’ve never noticed?) that it’s easy to be funny and mean, and much harder to be funny and nice. Matthew manages to be all three, which is even cleverer, and whilst I have sometimes been reduced to tears of laughter by his beautifully elegant put-downs (always aimed at the most deserving of targets), it’s also abundantly clear that he is a dazzlingly nice man, whose warmth, wit and generosity of spirit make him one of the best people you could ever hope to bump into in the pub.

I demand that you follow him on Twitter immediately. It is his perfect medium, and also the place where you get to find out about the music he likes, which – since he is a musician – is another treat.

Happy Christmas, Matthew! This tune is one of my earliest memories, although I never knew its name before today, so thank you for that too.