See Dave Spikey live in Leamington

CALL a pie a pie, says comedian Dave Spikey.

The double British Comedy Award winner, perhaps best known for writing and starring in Phoenix Nights, is bringing his latest tour, Words Don’t Come Easy, to the Spa Centre in Leamington this month.

Inspired by his fascination with the vagaries of the English language, the show examines many of life’s situations where words really don’t come easy - tongue-tied parents explaining the facts of life, ridiculous newspaper stories, magazine poems, adolescent chat-up lines and weird ‘hospital speak’ to name a few.

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Speaking to the Courier ahead of the show, he said: “I suddenly thought, our language is wonderfully ambiguous and there are numerous examples of how we abuse it.

“I thought, it’s my language, but all of a sudden, I don’t understand a menu in a restaurant. I have come across terms like ‘relaxing peas’, ‘kissed-by-the-chef signature sauce’ and ‘encased in filo pastry’. Call it a pie!”

Writing a show, for Dave, is an exercise in observation. He said: “Once I have a little theme in my head, it’s almost as if my brain is a computer that filters out material that I can put in the show that in other instances might wash over me.

“I write these little things down and talk about them to other people who might give me another idea - it’s an organic process.”

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And although he is in his fifth year of touring, Dave continues to improve his game. He said: “I am still learning about audiences and pace. I am quite a conversationalist comedian, so it might take me five minutes to reach a punchline, which means I have to keep tapping in little gags along the way.”

Aside from Phoenix Nights, Dave wrote and starred in Dead Man Weds and Magnolia, hosted Bullseye and is currently one of the regular hosts of the TV Book Club on Channel 4.

He has also been a regular on 8 out of 10 Cats and is about to take a script for a new sitcom to the BBC.

But fascinatingly, he was once a chief biomedical scientist in haematology.

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He said: “I am still quite involved in and interested in medicine, but I have never looked back.

“Having that earlier career put me in good stead for coping with this surreal celebrity world, because I don’t get it. I think it’s really false. Now that I have had a real life, I don’t want to get involved in it.

“I have lived near Chorley for most of my life and I have known my friends for more than 30 years. If we go down the pub and I say something like, ‘I was chatting to Michael Parkinson last week’, they say, ‘Shut up Dave, let’s talk about football!’ And that’s all I want.”

Catch Dave Spikey at the Spa Centre on Thursday March 22 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £18.50 or £17.50 if booked online. Call 0845 218 3540 or visit www.royalspacentreandtownhall.co.uk