'You notice the bets, see they're linked and soon work out it's Barney Curley'

Many epithets have been applied down the years to Barney Curley, all of them said with feeling, split between good and bad, but this is almost certainly the first time he has ever been mentioned in the same sentence as Liberace.

Not that Curley is known for his showmanship at the piano or the gaudiness of his outfits, but in one sense at least he enjoys a kinship with the flamboyant entertainer: his ability to succeed famously while utterly dividing opinion.

The haughty British playwright and cabaret performer Noel Coward encapsulated it best when, on meeting his American counterpart and feeling moved to offer an opinion, he ventured waspishly: "I have seen your act, and . . . what you do, you do very well."