Vic Reeves may seem an unlikely candidate to promote a pilot scheme for local produce in Asda, but the Yorkshire lad was keen to tell how he grew up in an area where there were no supermarkets and local fruit and vegetables were delivered by horse and cart.

The former Shooting Stars host, who now lives in Kent with his wife Nancy Sorrell and their twins, headed to Canterbury this week to support the Asda scheme and reminisce about his boyhood.

He said the cart that delivered produce when he was a boy was run by a man named Mr Todd. “He was a sullen man and there was very little difference between him and the horse,” Reeves said.

“He used to bring veg on his wagon and we used to run out to buy carrots to feed his horse. He had a good little earner there.”

Reeves told the local press he wanted to support the project because he did not “want the country to turn into America any more”.

When reminded that Asda is owned by US supermarket behemoth Wal-Mart, he quickly back-tracked: “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. They probably won’t let me do it again.”