“YOU watched the circus on telly?” My nephew looked at me as if I was from another world. And in a way it was.

I was telling him about TV entertainment when I was a child, which included the occasional circus in a Big Top. It seemed a bit quaint compared to glossy X Factor with its ‘Fifth Judge’ audience interaction app. But to a child in the 1970s - an age of three TV channels ending in ‘closedown’ at midnight, to the National Anthem - the circus was a Saturday night staple along with The Generation Game, The Two Ronnies and ‘seaside special’ variety shows.

Usually presented by people like Lulu, these shows featured a troupe of dancing girls, often introduced as something like the ‘Brian Matthews Shuffle Experience’, and a line-up of crooners, comics and contortionists.

They were a throwback to the golden era of variety in the early 20th century. Many singers, groups and comics from the 1960s and 70s rose through the ranks of variety bills, but gradually variety became unfashionable.

Now it seems, it’s back. On Sunday evening I was half-watching something on ITV I assumed was a spoof to start with. A cheesy man in a shiny suit was strutting through a theatre foyer with some dancers, finger-clicking to Pharrell Williams’s hit Happy. When they reached the stage, the curtain rose to the words ‘Sunday Night at the Palladium’ in lights.

I realised this wasn’t a spoof - it was a proper old-fashioned variety show. With a line-up featuring Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, British tenor Alfie Boe, pop princesses Little Mix, a pair of cheeky French mime artists and a stand-up set from Alan Davies, it had something for everyone, from little sisters to teenage brothers to nans.

Building on the success of Britain’s Got Talent, the show reflects a refreshing shift of attitude by TV programme-planners who’ve finally realised that audiences want variety, not just endless singing talent contests.

It’s something stars such as Cannon and Ball, Paul Daniels and Alhambra panto king Billy Pearce have been highlighting for years. This weekend Bradford’s Alhambra theatre celebrates its centenary with A Night of Variety, featuring stars such as Michael Ball, The Krankies and dance maverick Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures company.

The gala performance pays tribute to the heritage of the Alhambra, which opened in 1914 with a variety show, during the genre’s heyday, and went on to draw big-name variety stars, including Laurel and Hardy and Morecambe and Wise. It was all down to a former wool clerk called Francis Laidler, whose vision of a theatre offering variety for the masses has left a thriving legacy, a hundred years on.