The morning I rang Paul Daniels for a bit of a chat about the forthcoming variety show at St George's Hall, Bradford was enjoying typical mid-spring weather: cloud, rain and a chill in the air.

"Oh the sun is shining here," Mr Daniels said warmly, as though he had conjured it up over the banks of the Thames at Wargrave, Berkshire, where he lives with wife Debbie.

Sunshine is one of the things you can afford after 40 years at or near the top of your profession. For his 70th birthday and the couple's 20th wedding anniversary, he and Debbie went to California.

But for a book called How To Entertain At Parties, which he read when he was 11, Paul Daniels might have stuck to selling cheese and candles for a living in cloudy Teesside.

But in 1969, at the age of 31, after being offered a summer season at Newquay, he decided to sell the family grocery shop and concentrate on the art of illusion.

Evidently he liked showbusiness - not a lot, but a great deal. His career blossomed. Within 15 years he was awarded the prestigious title of Magician of the Year by the Hollywood Academy of Magical Arts, and a special of The Paul Daniels Magic Show on BBC1 won the Golden Rose of Montreux Award in Switzerland.

After all that and so much more, he surely has nothing left to prove by going out on the road with The Krankies, Cannon and Ball, Brotherhood of Man, Frank Carson and Jimmy Cricket?

"When the offer came up, I took it because in the old days I missed variety in the theatre - I was doing clubs. We have worked together, but not all six on the same bill," he said.

Apart from whatever money he'll be getting for the 20 shows scheduled, the idea of knocking about the country from Skegness to Portsmouth with Carson and the others is a cracker.

Live variety is the reverse of one-man television shows with guests. On stage, anything is liable to happen and unscripted fun is what he's looking forward to.

"I used to do amateur dramatics where you would rehearse for a year for a week's performance. When I turned professional it was the reverse: you rehearse for a week to run for a year. It was a shock.

"The pros all turn up knowing all the variations of their act. So you can slot into any theatre instantly," he said.

By the time the show reaches Bradford's St George's Hall in September, the performers will be halfway through the tour, so it should be well-oiled, perhaps in more ways than one.

Everything, even the mishaps, should be working perfectly, although at the time of writing Paul doesn't know exactly what he'll be doing; but he thinks Frank Carson will be the link man between the other acts.

The sense of anticipation among the general public is likely to result in a sell-out audience at St George's. Old-fashioned family entertainment that variety used to represent is hard to find outside of summer seasons at coastal resorts.

Paul thinks television killed it off by concentrating more on pop music. Agents who acted for bands also had disc jockeys as clients, so they had a double interest in promoting both. Now, the art of staging and filming variety on television has been lost.

"Television generally doesn't know how to shoot it or promote it. A lot of young producers have grown up with it," he added.

Paul has two good reasons to look fondly on variety. He made his television debut on Hughie Green's Opportunity Knocks in 1970, which was a variety show of a kind; and in 1979, during his summer season show at Great Yarmouth, he met Debbie McGee.

You can almost hear Frank Carson quip: "Yes, but is that any reason to punish variety!" And Paul Daniels cutting across him with the last word: "Ah, but Frank, it's the spell I put on 'em!"

Paul Daniels struck me as a man who knows how to make the most of what he's got and enjoy it.

  • The Best of British Variety Tour 2008 is at St George's Hall on September 9. The box office number is (01274) 432000.