Bill Bailey is known as a nature-loving, eco-friendly comedian so maybe that’s why he has recycled a song he has been doing for over a decade for the BBC iPlayer’s Funny Valentines series. That’s not a negative criticism. Far from it. It’s good to see that something that he has been performing onstage at least as far back as the 2004 Part Troll tour has now been given a chance to blossom into this four minute epic complete with a video featuring exploding belisha beacons. 

The West Country maestro is famous for his stylistic mash-ups and here he blends hard rock with French chanson for a bittersweet tale of thwarted romance and betrayal that swings between tender observations – "like a snowflake that melts on the eyelash of a startled deer" – and the bleeding furious.

In the video Bailey shuttles between leather-studded rocker and a lonely lollipop man who looks not unlike a young Daniel Kitson. The real scoop is getting Emma Thompson to play the pastel-hued heartbreaker. I guess it was one of those “we sent her the script and she liked it” wheezes as I don’t think they hang out at the same showbiz parties or share the same agent.

Anyway, take a look and enjoy. I know Valentine’s Day is a distant memory now, but this stands up as a deft slice of musical comedy any day of the year. And who knows, maybe in another eleven years it will be the centrepiece of Love Song – The Musical which will give Lord Webber a run for his money in London’s glittering West End.

Watch Bill Bailey: Love Song here.