After a short, snappy appearance from Shazia Mirza – “I won’t stay long, I’m being deported in 20 minutes” – Katherine Ryan came on sporting a flowery headdress and some attitude for Latitude. Her boyfriend recently dumped her by text, she explained, tossing in the first of many Pokemon Go references I expect I’ll be hearing over the next few months.

Ryan is a star and she knows it, mockingly dubbing herself “TV’s Katherine Ryan” but in this performance she sensibly introduced herself to people who may not have seen her onstage before and offered a bit about her Canadian background, growing up in the industrial town of Sarnia – “like Swindon without the character”. 

She soon moved on to her two favourite topics, celebrity and the media, lobbing in gags about headline stories ranging from Cecil the lion to Taylor Swift’s Twitter spats. If the stories were old the gags still felt fresh and punchy because they were told so well. Similarly Ryan’s impression of Cheryl Cole – “so beautiful she makes us forget she’s garbage” – was hilarious even if, by her own admission, her attempt at a Geordie accent strayed towards Wales at times.

A number of critics have suggested that Ryan is the new Joan Rivers because she is so fearless and outspoken when it comes to talking about sex. There was plenty of dick-based smut here – as well as some very funny stuff about her daughter’s English accent and her pets – but I don’t think Rivers ever did her filthy routines in a tent in a Suffolk field on a Saturday afternoon, so that’s one-nil to Ryan.

More Latitude Reviews here.