Mark Steel can find the funny in most aspects of life - even the miserable ones.

Not long ago, he was happily married and didn't think Donald Trump could be US President or that we'd leave the EU.

The harsh reality is that Trump is in, we're on our way our and he's just come through a messy divorce - all of which is the basis for his latest show. It comes to Keswick next month and is already sold out.

The London stand-up, who presents the hugely popular Radio 4 series Mark Steel’s In Town, says the demise of his marriage did have a funny side.

Some of his wife’s grounds for divorce lend themselves to comedy: he never cut the privet hedge; he hadn’t trained the dog; he went on tour (he is a comic after all); and he is obsessed with sport.

“There was one night I said: “I’m coming up to bed in a minute, but then realised, ooh the fencing is on,” he deadpans

“It wasn’t just any old tournament, it was a regional final – Hungary versus Italy.”

He still manages to mix his trademark left wing politics in with his personal situation: “In mediation, everything is brought down to the cost of things.

“It encourages people to be unpleasant and greedy, and it struck me that it’s the same philosophy that’s driven the world over the past few decades.

"So education, libraries, health and social care all have to have a financial worth; everything is reduced to whether it has a value that can be worked out on a calculator.

"But ideas that have been on the back burner for 30 years are now on the agenda. Young people really do believe that we should look after the old and sick, and I think that’s optimistic and encouraging."

Mark Steel, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, July 14, sold out.