Though these days more likely to be recognised as the perpetually put-upon Olly Reeder from The Thick of It, Chris Addison has actually been a fine stand-up talent for many years. Starting out on the comedy circuit back in 1995 in his home town of Manchester, he’s still not sure whatever possessed him: ‘I don’t know, boredom I suppose. The relief of post-graduation boredom. That’s what it boiled down to, really.’ Still, that tedium bore considerable fruit, with the former grammar school boy going on to create a series of intelligently themed shows that got him nominated for the Perrier Award twice.

Then off Armando Iannucci whisked him for the role of the junior policy adviser often bawled out by Peter Capaldi’s spin doctor Malcolm Tucker. But now his full attention is back on the stand-up. Though he’s not been away as long as many who disappear into TV land only to return to stand-up a decade later, Addison tested the water and toured towards the end of 2008 putting to bed all his old material. ‘What I’ve got planned now is to do something that doesn’t have a really big theme in the way those Edinburgh shows had. And to write something more personal than I have before. Though it’s just ended up a series of explanations of why I’m essentially useless.’

Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 17 Mar