HIS stage act has been known to drive women crazy. They follow him across the country, stake out his hotels and wait for hours at stage doors just to catch a glimpse of their idol.

Yet Daniel O'Donnell, who arrives in Bournemouth tonight for a string of six shows at the BIC, is the antithesis of the usual pop idol.

The mild man of middle of the road, he favours comfy casual clothes and delivers a stage act that is about as sexually charged as a church whist drive.

What's more he collects tea-caddies, does behind the scenes work for charity and is good to his old mum. Even stranger for a man who makes his living as an entertainer, he's painfully shy, hates being photographed and loathes giving interviews.

Yet this softly spoken 41-year-old Irishman has somehow emerged as the focus of the kind of fan attention that is normally associated with wildly fashionable pop acts.

Not that his shows provoke any kind of frenzied behaviour, more a slow, simmering adulation from ladies of a certain age.

They are rewarded with the kind of personal contact that most stars simply never find time for.

O'Donnell regularly arrives at the theatre early to spend several hours answering fan mail and after the show he'll meet every single person waiting at the stage door - however long it takes.

But apart from this remarkable one-to-one contact that he maintains with his fan base, it is difficult to fathom his appeal. To the uninitiated his singing seems tuneful and pleasant but entirely unremarkable. There is clearly something else though.

Tickets for his shows sell out not only months in advance but the devoted will wait outside theatres, often for several days, to ensure a front of house position.

A couple of years back one unfortunate devotee had to be treated for hypothermia after queuing through the night in sub-zero temperatures to secure a front row seat for one of Mr O'Donnell's Bournemouth performances.

This time around business has been as brisk as usual. Not only has virtually every seat for his six-night residency at the BIC been sold but hotels are reporting bumper bookings, too, with fans flooding in from all over the country.

The shows are a repeat of his sell-out mini-season in the town two years ago.

Daniel O'Donnell plays the Bournemouth International Centre from tonight until Saturday, September 6. See review on this site on Sept 3.