Spikey - who is also a team captain in Channel 4's 8 Out Of 10 Cats - spoke to The Guide about his Peterborough date, part of his The Best Medicine Tour.

Dave Spikey has a better understanding of the restorative powers of laughter than most comedians on the circuit.

Before reaching a national audience with his role as the consummate entertainer Jerry "the Saint" St Clair in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, he made his living as a biomedical scientist at Bolton General Hospital.

It's a time that Spikey – among the most enthusiastic interviewees I've ever spoken to - remembers fondly, and said his former career formed a hook for the new show.

"It's called The Best Medicine, but it's a very tenuous link to hang it on, really," he said.

"There's a lot of stories in there... I was a biomedical scientist for years, but that forms about 20 minutes of the routine. In a hospital it's just like a different world, a different language. My dad used to say laughter is the best medicine and it's proven to be true. There's always the fact that research has shown that it's very therapeutic - it raises your immune system."

He said the distinctly northern brand of comedy that he and Kay have become known for is based in the healing properties of laughter.

"I get asked about northern comedy in a lot of interviews - I think it's just that we use comedy to diffuse different situations. If you're feeling down, or you've split up with your girlfriend, you go down to the pub with your mates and within an hour you'll be laughing."

It's been noted that Spikey - along with Peter Kay and fellow Phoenix Nights star Paddy McGuinness - have brought about something of a return to observational comedy in recent years, something Spikey agrees with.

"It's really about examining what there is in life to laugh at," he said.

"Storytelling is back, I think. There are a lot of comics talking about life in general… when you're a comic you have to get it in your head that if something's happened to you, it's happened to everybody.

"A comedian's job is pointing out things we've all seen and can relate to. It's like I saw in the paper about a clairvoyant who burned her house down - she should have seen that coming. She left her crystal ball on the windowsill and the light caught it!"

Born David Bramwell, Spikey said it had never been his plan to become a comedian.

"I wasn't the class joker because I was quite academic. I wanted to be a doctor - the lad who was was called Derek Rigby. He had a big nose and stuck out ears and when he looked at you straight on he looked like a VW Beetle with the doors open.

Spikey said his father - who, despite leaving school to become an apprentice, won a scholarship to university - was an extremely important influence on his latent comic potential.

"We didn't have a TV for much of my growing up, so we read voraciously - my dad was into the arts and he was a classical musician," he said.

"I always did well in English, but my reports always said 'why does there always have to be a comedy element to David's work?'."

Now of course, Spikey has made a successful career from his comedy, and said the success of Phoenix Nights has created that strange side-effect of success that is getting recognised in the street.

"It's usually 'Jerry the Berry!', but I turn around and there's nobody there," he said.

"I do get it a lot. I was in London for some meetings, and some Cockney bloke gave me a high five in the underground."

Although he appreciates the attention his work gets him, Spikey said he's ill at ease with fame against the backdrop of his previous career.

"I'm uncomfortable with this idea of celebrity," he said.

"I worked long hours doing shifts in the health service, when you're helping save lives, but it's now that people come up and shake your hand. I really appreciate it, but it does seem strange."

And what's next for Dave Spikey?

"I've got a lot of things bubbling in the background," he said, adding that he is writing a script for a self-contained comic drama at the moment.

"It's about some lads who get made redundant…there's only one big employer in their town, like a Longbridge situation. They buy a French vineyard on one of these internet auction sites by accident …you know these sites where you can buy anything. They buy this vineyard thinking it's an expensive bottle of wine, and it's written over the period of a wine-making season."

He said, however, that for the moment, stand-up is his first priority.

Dave Spikey will be at the Broadway Theatre, Peterborough, from 7.30pm on Thursday, April 17th. Tickets, priced £17.50, are available on 01733 316100 or at www.thebroadwaytheatre.co.uk.

More online:
www.davespikey.co.uk.

The Best Medicine tour reviews.