From CBeebies star to sought-after comic, writer, actor and presenter, the career trajectory of impeccably-mannered Miles Jupp, 37, has taken a splendidly-steep upward curve. We spoke to him ahead of two dates in Kent.

How do you fit it all in as a married father-of-five with a nationwide stand-up tour and a weekly radio show?

I try and compartmentalise, try and take things a day or week at a time. To some extent my children understand what I do. They think I earn a living by being silly – and that’s probably true. Do they think I’m funny? On a good day, maybe.

As a solo performer, how do you prepare for a show? Engage in a one-man huddle?

I’ll spend time in the dressing room, maybe listen to a recording of one of my previous shows to get “in the zone”. I also like to go on to the stage when the theatre’s empty to visualise what it’s going to be like when the audience arrives and get a sense of the space I’m playing into. Often, the best view of a theatre is the view from the stage. It’s also exciting being in a theatre, knowing there’s going to be lots of people there later. So I try and soak up a bit of that feeling. I can’t really sleep until 2am after a show. To unwind the other night, I read 90 pages of a Graham Greene novel in the bath.

What came first for you – comedy or acting?

Comedy was first. I started doing stand-up in Scotland when I was 20. Then I was offered Balamory and I really enjoyed being on set with other actors, so I thought acting was something I could do as well. TV acting requires a completely discipline from stage work. On stage, the audience is about 100ft away so you have to fling your arms out wide and speak loudly to push your energy out there. With TV and film, you tell a story in little movements – bring everything in close.

You were Archie, the kilted, castle-dwelling inventor in Balamory...

I probably didn’t do the work justice when I started because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, what it involved or what the disciplines were. I was told filming involved a lot of sitting around and not doing anything. But on my first day I had about 25 pages of script to learn. The dances we had to do weren’t choreographed and the producer knew I couldn’t dance. Of my performance, an actor friend of mine said he’d never seen anyone in anything appear to give less of a stuff.

You’re quite modest – are you comfortable with your growing level of fame?

Every now and then I feel slightly self-conscious, but you’ve just got to get on with your life, haven’t you? I mean, you can be sitting next to someone on a train for half-an-hour, assuming you’re strangers to each other, but when the person gets up to leave, they’ll say, ‘I really liked you’ in some show or other. Suddenly it dawns on you they’ve been watching you the whole time.

You avoided having a TV at home for seven years. How come?

When my wife and I first got married we were both trying to be writers, so I was worried about not having the discipline to concentrate if a telly was there. I remember living in one flat in Scotland which had a TV and loads of channels and thinking, “I’ve been watching documentaries about monkeys for three hours now – I’ve done literally nothing”.

What’s your ultimate TV ambition?

To play a TV detective, obviously – it’d be insane not to.

DETAILS

If you think you’ve seen Miles Jupp before it’s hardly surprising. Miles played Nigel in the sitcom Rev, John Duggan in The Thick Of It and Owen in Spy, as well as appearing in Michael Winterbottom’s The Look Of Love and George Clooney’s Monuments Men.
A regular on Radio 4, he is host of The News Quiz and his sitcom In And Out Of The Kitchen was nominated for a Writers’ Guild Award. He also appeared in the recent Outnumbered Christmas Special.

Miles Jupp’s Songs of Freedom comes to Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre on Friday, January 13. For tickets visit marlowetheatre.com or call 01227 787787.

He will also be at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford on Saturday, February 4. Visit orchardtheatre.co.uk or call 01322 220000.