But lest we forget, Capaldi's Doctor is slightly less avuncular than many of his predecessors, and after a daft but amusing bit involving cue cards ("I'm sorry, I didn't realise you weren't from Aberdeen") it was ultimately the Doctor's enthusiasm for discovering the nature of the killer apparitions that won through.
Instead, a slightly stooped, avuncular-looking figure accompanied by a big black labrador ushers me into his private office.
Behind the avuncular, slightly befuddled facade viewers knew, he writes, was a man consumed by ambition and driven to succeed at any cost.
Yet the good news is that, in terms of structure and that slightly detached, uniquely avuncular, quite-possibly-stoned tone of voice, Maupin seems to have got his mojo back.
Smaller, stouter than he looks on a stage, Modi, avuncular if slightly preoccupied, greets the bride and groom and then makes a slow progress through the guests.
But none of this is particularly egregious the profile I've built so far of Aiden is that of a slightly over-eager but mostly avuncular semi-muso.
But none of this is particularly egregious – the profile I've built so far of Aiden is that of a slightly over-eager but mostly avuncular semi-muso.
Fry is in his 15th year of presenting, and was his usual avuncular, ever-so-slightly racy self – everyone's fun distant relative, now only seen at weddings and funerals, more and more in need of an earlier night.
