Don't be fooled by the appearance... TV comic/actor Jack Dee is never happier than when he's doing stand-up comedy. Viv Hardwick reports on his massive nationwide tour, which reaches the North-East next week.

JACK Dee is returning to his first love: a gigantic nationwide stand-up tour, taking in Middlesbrough, Newcastle and York. In contrast to his image as the most crotchety man this side of Victor Meldrew, Dee is good company and bubbling with enthusiasm at the prospect of undertaking his first major tour for a couple of years.

The 42-year-old admits: "Nothing beats the thrill of live performance. When stand-up is going well, it's the most exhilarating hit a stand-up can get. When the ideas are flowing and you're improvising, it's like being able to fly. It's the biggest buzz you'll ever have.''

Happily married to Jane, and the proud father of four children, he believes that ''success breeds success on stage. If you can tap into that vein of inspiration, it just keeps on working and there's no end to what you can produce.''

His early triumphs were down to taking the simple germ of an idea - about how annoying it is to have people to stay - and working it up into a half-hour routine.

Moving into tell-tale grouch mode, he says: ''I hate it when people want to help after dinner. They always offer to do the drying-up - that really gets on my nerves because they don't know where to put anything. Why don't they just put their money where their mouth is and volunteer to do the washing up - which is clearly a far worse job? Once I started developing this theme, the resentment just mounted and I built it into a whole section of the show.''

Dee reckons he's paid to do nothing other than concentrate on the pointless stuff in life.

"I'm quite happy to admit that I talk about nothing very profound. Big stuff just leaves me behind. When Seinfeld was accused of talking about nothing, he replied: 'there's a shortage of nothing'.

''I don't apologise for my show being about nothing. I'd frankly be embarrassed if I tried to address the world's problems in a didactic way. A comedian who comes on with all the answers is just not funny. 'Ladies and gentlemen, what we should be doing is this'. 'And your point is?' Stand-ups are much funnier when they present themselves as part of the problem.''

Crucial to Dee's appeal, of course, is his simmering sense of rage. ''I do get very annoyed about things. My act is about me working up a head of steam over the smallest subject. Being unreasonably angry about the most minor point is very funny - and it says more about the woes of the world than I could ever manage.

So what will be getting Dee's goat in his latest live performance? He will, he reveals, be tackling the topic of circuses. ''I'm trying to introduce the idea of the English State Circus. It would be held in a massive Burberry big top, and the clown would come on being abusive, smelling of cigarettes and with a betting-shop pencil behind his ear. 'And now from Manchester, the Fly Tippers'."

TV-wise he's done everything from Jack Dee Live at the Apollo, to The Deputy as a government minister and Tunnel of Love, the Simon Nye comedy drama about romance among the fairground attractions. Two feature films, with Dee appearing in cameo roles, are destined for release this year. They're Short Order and The Last Drop, a second World War Movie from Spivs director Colin Teague.

He says: ''Being on television hasn't changed my life. I still have to go to the supermarket and motorway service stations. I'm always able to find a common ground with my audience.

''I keep my feet on the ground by remaining constantly annoyed about everything."

* Jack Dee appears at Middlesbrough Town Hall on Tuesday, (0642) 729729; Newcastle City Hall next Friday, 0191-261 2606 and York's Grand Opera House on April 10, 0870 606 3595

Published: 17/03/2005