"The public are weird," says George, who was once one of the sport's top players but has always been most famous for his bling and outrageous stage entrances, wearing a cape and carrying his trademark candelabra.

"I only wear that stuff when I'm working – I don't wear it at home or when I go to Tesco and Asda.

"I get people stopping me and saying 'where's the jewellery, where's the candelabra?'

"The public are weird. I don't walk around all day with a candelabra!"

One of the fathers of TV darts, George's public image is entirely his own creation and he will be in full regalia when he walks on stage at the Batley Frontier Club for the latest round of the new Betfred League of Legends next Thursday evening.

"The public expect me to do it," he says. "They love all that, the candles and the cloak and the singing. It's part of the game.

"Darts is a great sport, but to watch darts hit the board, it's boring!

"You have got to have the characters throwing, that's what makes the game."

Fancy dress – on players as much as the audience – nicknames, the sillier the better and spectacular walk-ons are now an integral part of the top-level darts experience, whether live or on TV.

George has no doubt who should get the credit, or the blame. "I started that years ago," he says. "Wearing fancy shirts, all the showmanship. They all slagged me off, but I thought 'it's a show, it's showbiz'.

"They've all got nicknames now and they all wear different things and love a bit of jewellery. It's all poor quality gear mind you. I tell some of them to melt it all down and make one good one!"

The League of Legends is a new masters event, being televised live by satellite channel Setanta, which sees the stars of 10 or even 20 years ago going head-to-head in a sort of wrinklies' version of Sky's Premier League, a showcase for the sport's top professionals.

Said George: "We get the grannies coming along, because they remember watching us when we were young.

"We get two or three generations, it's family darts, you don't get no yobbos. In the Premier League, it's football supporters.

"It's a bit yobbish, but they are all darts fans and they all come along and pay their money. With the Legends, it's mums and dads and grannies, whole families come along and it's great for the game, we need that.

"They've all got their heroes and they've all got to have a bet on their heroes."

To an extent, the Legends has healed rifts which occurred more than a decade ago, when darts split down the middle.

It's a long, ugly story, but in a nutshell, a new organisation – now the PDC – split from the sport's governing body, the BDO, to begin staging its own tournaments.