Sell-out stand-up John Bishop is now being let loose on BBC with his own show. It’s an incredible rise to fame for the man who quit his job and saved his marriage. Viv Hardwick reports.

COMEDIAN John Bishop’s The Sunshine Tour has almost sold out across the country until the end of the year… so take advantage of the chance to see the former pharmaceutical company sales director star in his own six-part BBC1 TV series, John Bishop’s Britain.

The man emerging as the country’s latest comedy star – and who was tipped for the top by 7DAYS back in 2008 – is probably more at home on his chosen subjects such as family, growing up, holidays, work, love and marriage, than most.

The Manchester-based Liverpudlian threw in his well paid job for a career in comedy and somehow saved his marriage in the process.

“I’d lost the essence of who I was as a person because I was so serious and grumpy all the time,” he says of an incredible time when he turned professional using his marital split as part of his act. The fact his wife, Melanie, saw him by accident doing his comedy routine about her makes the fact they got back together all the more remarkable.

Unsurprisingly his controversial title for his first big national tour was Stick Your Job Up Your Arse. Two years on the stand-up act on TV is joined by sketches and reallife stories from members of the British public. Basically that’s what Bishop does best.

The father of three boys – aged 16, 14 and 12 – also uses his hilarious domestic observations and, as the recent Live At The Apollo audience on BBC1 saw, admits that his children are highly embarrassed by his attempts to be funny...

“The teenage years are an absolute nightmare. We’ve got three boys and – I can tell you – hang on to your hats, you don’t know what’s coming ‘til it hits you,” he says.

Bishop’s says his TV show touches on subjects you might talk to your mates about at the pub which, of course, as a Liverpool FC supporter includes sport.

He claims that doing stand-up wasn’t a lifelong dream but he’s moved closer and closer to this area of entertainment by combining being a Radio City Liverpool DJ with writing a play for BBC Radio 4 and a film script. He picked up his newcomer comedy award as long ago as 2002 but didn’t take the professional plunge until four years later.

BISHOP says: “I worked for a pharmaceutical company in sales and marketing, and, one night, I found myself standing up, on my feet, in a comedy club and it just went from there. That’s the good thing about it. I had absolutely no interest in it before. When I go out with my mates, I’m not the loudest by any means.

“It’s a great honour that the BBC has put faith in me for this and it’s an opportunity that I am extremely excited about.

There is a rumour that having a Scouser on BBC1 means they get a grant. But I’m sure that’s not the reason they’re doing the show ... is it?”

Bishop, who popped up at Stockton’s ARC last week, is one of the hot tickets for Edinburgh Fringe Festival at the McEwan Hall in August, has also appeared on BBC1’s Have I Got News For You?, Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (where he confirmed he was once the show’s warm-up man) and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. He was then snapped up as a regular panel member of Sky1’s A League Of Their Own.

“Have I Got News For You was brilliant” says Bishop. “I was on with Ian (Hislop0 and Paul (Merton) and John Prescott. Prescott was great. He took some stick off Ian Hislop.

Ian and Paul were very accommodating and friendly.

It’s a pleasure to be there, but you have to remember that it’s their show and you can learn from them. Ian Hislop talked me through the show and gave me a few pointers, which was dead nice,” he says.

Bishop even has time for those prepared to hurl insults at him “I shoot bad hecklers.

Actually, hecklers just want to join in. They’re not there to ruin the show because they’re part of it. You’ve just got to manage them. Once, I was doing a gig in Leeds and only a few people turned up and I had a heckler and I put him down so much that he got up to go. But I said to him ‘Look, you can’t go.

There are only 17 people here!’“ He hopes that his new series will be slightly different from stand-up shows that have been on the BBC in the past. “I think people will enjoy watching it. If they don’t enjoy watching it then that’ll be the end of my career, and I’ll have to go and get my job back.”

■ John Bishop’s Britain, BBC1, Saturday, 9.50pm

■ The Sunshine Tour current dates are: October 10, Sunderland Empire (sold out); Nov 4, Harrogate International Centre (sold out); Nov 19, Futurist Scarborough, Box Office 01723-374500; Dec 16, Newcastle City Hall (sold out); January 25, York Opera House, 0844-847-2322; Feb 10, MetroRadio Arena, Newcastle, 0844-493-6666; March 11, Middlesbrough Town Hall, 01642-729729