Nick Mohammed’s dark side, as he gradually warped into the villain of football comedy Ted Lasso, has been something of a revelation, not least to the character comic himself. Twice Emmy-nominated for his turn as the insecure, increasingly malevolent Nate Shelley on Apple TV+’s hit show, Mohammed truly appreciates the most ‘nuanced’ role of his career.

Nate veered from AFC Richmond’s diffident kit man to its backstabbing coach, deserting his clubmates to become a rival manager. ‘It got a bit emotional,’ Mohammed acknowledges of his character’s betrayal as the show returns for its third season. ‘I’ve never, ever, had to do anything like that before, on any show. It was absolutely a challenge and a real eye-opener for me.’

^{Nick Mohammed faces off with Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso}

Mohammed is uncertain whether Nate will recover his humanity. ‘That’s up to the audience to decide. All I can say is that it’s been another rollercoaster. Taking this character that people liked and then slowly giving them reasons not to like him has been really fun. Everyone wants to see Nate’s redemption. You’ll just have to wait and see though. I’m not convinced.’

In his own writing, Mohammed has always been thirstier for laughs than the elegantly paced Ted Lasso. ‘I get nervous if there’s not a gag coming up,’ he admits. Despite having performed as his excitable alter-ego Mr Swallow live for about two decades, with increasingly ambitious magic shows and musicals, in deliberately bad portrayals of Houdini, Dracula and Santa Claus, he’s only now embarking upon his first UK tour as the camp, prickly prima-donna.

‘Even in the Houdini show, where he gets into the water tank and we wanted it to be really, really tense, I was always fighting to undermine it with jokes,’ he says. The title, The Very Best & Worst Of Mr Swallow, is a bit misleading, as he reckons at least half of the show is ‘new stuff or heavily reworked. The character has developed over time and I’ve grown as a performer.’ With some audiences having only seen Mr Swallow on viral clips from 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Mohammed feels like he’s ‘almost starting afresh, which is exciting because Mr Swallow treads a very fine line between charming and irritating.’

^{Getting in a fankle as Mr Swallow/Pictures: Matt Crockett}

Also exciting is Mohammed’s burgeoning screen career. He’s just signed a development deal for future projects with BBC Studios and plays a smalltown cop in the upcoming movie Maggie Moore(s) alongside Tina Fey and Jon Hamm. His own show, the Sky spy sitcom Intelligence, in which he stars with David Schwimmer, returns in April. The hour-long special features another of his heroes, the mutually appreciative Jennifer Saunders, who cast Mohammed in the Absolutely Fabulous movie as a Mr Swallow-like fashion-shoot assistant. ‘Watching French and Saunders growing up, they were such a key part of my sense of humour,’ he enthuses. ‘I adored them and still adore them. Getting to work with David has also been a dream come true; he’s just so creative.’

He and the Friends star established their screwball chemistry on the dark 2014 Channel 4 pilot Morning Has Broken, a glimpse at the bickering egos behind a television breakfast show, written by and starring Mohammed and Nighty Night creator Julia Davis as the programme’s celebrity doctor and star presenter respectively, with Schwimmer as their American producer. Despite being commissioned for a series, personal circumstances meant the show, about ‘a prominent woman in the media having a nervous breakdown on daytime television’, never happened.

Nevertheless, Mohammed and Davis are seeking to revive their double act for a different Channel 4 project later this year. ‘God, I love working with Julia,’ he says. ‘We’re still working out what it might be, and I probably shouldn’t say too much. But we’re just taking the relationship between our characters and seeing what we can create with it.’

Nick Mohammed: The Very Best & Worst Of Mr Swallow is on tour Sunday 26 March–Sunday 14 May; Ted Lasso is available now on Apple TV+; Intelligence airs on Sky Comedy/NOW TV, Saturday 8 April.