DAVE Spikey, co-writer and co-star of Phoenix Nights is bringing his latest tour, The Best Medicine, to Malvern Theatres and Theatr Brycheiniog.

Though Dave worked in the NHS for almost 30 years, the title comes not from that experience but from his dad: “He always said laughter was the best medicine,” says Dave. “That’s how I nearly died of diphtheria when I was six!”

The move to his second, hugely successful, career came when he realised that the balance between work and comedy had shifted and his job had also changed. “I was chief biomedical scientist in haematology, and often found myself in an office for most of my day. I didn’t want to be a manager, I wanted to be doing my job.”

For a while Dave fitted the comedy in around his job, but one day, looking at his diary he saw that alongside a number of important work meetings were gigs supporting Max Boyce, Jack Dee and Lee Evans one week, with a date as warm-up for Eddie Izzard the next.

“I thought, how did it come to this,” he recalls. “That was the moment I took it seriously.”

Then his comedy career got the ‘little boost’ he believes everyone needs.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” he says. “I was compering the North West comedian of the year award and Peter (Kay) won it. Because he lived in Bolton, just round the corner from the hospital, I could pop round at lunchtimes so we started writing together almost immediately. The rest – That Peter Kay Thing followed by Phoenix Nights and his appearances as team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats – is history. He also has the distinction of being the highest scoring contestant on the BBC’s Celebrity Mastermind, a double British Comedy Award winner and a BAFTA nominee.

But the current tour brings him back to his first love – stand-up.

“Every time you open a paper it’s doom and gloom,” he comments. “I look for the comedy in the drama of life.

“In the act I have a little section of overheard conversations. They are just things people say: I was at an awards ceremony recently where I overheard a couple of women at the bar: “Has she had the baby then?, said one. “Yes,” said the second. “A little boy, 8lb 12oz. They’ve called him Mark with a c.”

“What – Cark?” said the first.

“I’m loving the tour,” he says, “because I am still thinking of new stuff. It just grows and grows and grows. I hate leaving stuff out but you have to keep it fresh for yourself as well as for the audience. I got a review recently from someone who’d seen it early on and they said it seemed just as fresh as the first date. I’m trying to keep it that way.”

The Best Medicine is at Malvern Theatres on Saturday. To book, call the box office on 01684 892277 or visit malvern-theatres. co.uk; and at Theatr Brycheiniog on Thursday, April 23. To book, call the box office on 01874 611622.