Talent oozes out of Stuart Bowden. His imaginative, poetic writing is beautiful. He has great comic timing and clownish physicality. He makes an easy rapport with the audience, ad-libs, gives good face. These skills came together in his latest show, She Was Probably Not A Robot, which developed themes from the previous one, The World Holds Everyone Apart, Apart From Us.

The sole survivor of a catastrophe that destroys Planet Earth – we are all dead, some rather brutally we are told – Stuart mourns his dead ex-girlfriend Veronica, as well as his dog. Celeste, an alien from a distant planet, who is a bit simple and a bit stage shy, has been making a replica earth for 25,000 years, as a hobby. That’s very handy for Stuart.

So why didn’t I find it as compelling and enjoyable as I wanted it to be? The fault lies in the slimness of the story and the fact that nothing is really at stake for the central character, who, to be honest, is a buffoon with not that much going for him.

There are some lovely, macabre scenes. Stuart sleeping with his dead dog on his feet ‘for warmth… no, just for’, and Veronica’s head on the stick of his playhorse for company. There is a running gag on the pronunciation of ‘debris’. He gets the audience singing along to a jaunty refrain – and he has a very fine singing voice. An episode depicting his journey on an air-mattress across rough seas (aka the audience) was fun but went on for too long.

The best moments are where he reflects on Veronica, short descriptions that are left-field and lovely, ending: ‘She was… and then she was not.’

It is funny in places, it is moving in places, it is always watchable, and Stuart is a very likeable performer. The influence of Philip Burgers (Dr Brown) is evident. I’d like to see more depth to the story, less reliance on silliness.