WHEN comedy fans John Oliver and Claire Merriman walked through the doors of Malvern theatres for a comedy gig on Friday night, little did they imagine they would come out engaged to be married.

Mr Oliver proposed to his girlfriend after American comic Rich Hall, who was headlining the evening’s comedy show, urged him to do so as part of his act.

Miss Merriman said: “Our seats were in the front row and on the way there we were discussing what we’d say if he started talking to us, asking questions and so on.

“Whet it came to the show, he was asking people’s names and doing little songs about them, and when he got to us, he asked how long we’d been together, John told him two-and-a-half years, and Rich said that’s long enough, handed John his own wedding ring and told him to propose to me - and he did. The audience gave us a big round of applause.”

It was only afterwards that she found out Mr Oliver has already asked her father for permission to marry her a couple of weeks before, and had been thinking hard about a way to propose.

He said: “I hadn’t thought of a way to propose, so when this happened and Rich said propose to her, it was a natural opportunity and I took it. It was surreal. This was right before the interval, so all through the interval, people were coming up to us and congratulating us.”

Of course, the newly-engaged couple, who live at Howsell Road in Malvern, had to give Rich Hall his ring back – “He said he’d have some explaining to do to his wife if we didn’t,” said Mr Oliver – so the next day saw them touring Worcester’s jewellers looking for their very own engagement ring.

Miss Merriman, aged 33, is an artist and Mr Oliver, 34, works in a hospital pharmacy. The couple live in Howsell Road, Malvern Link.

Miss Merriman said: “It was really really unexpected, and I don’t know what Rich Hall thought of it – I got the impression that he was a bit taken aback as well by what had happened.”