Comedian and Strictly Come Dancing winner Bill Bailey kicked off his UK tour at Plymouth Pavilions earlier this month. We caught up with him ahead of his visit.

His tour - En Route to Normal - was surprisingly named before the pandemic. Postponed during lockdowns, its title has gained more relevance now.

“It was almost like I predicted it – sorry! Sorry everyone!” Bill laughed nervously. “It was originally a reflection on how much the world was in turmoil, even before there was a global pandemic. I guess now the title’s taken on a greater poignancy.”

Bill explained the tour was named after the situation with Trump and Brexit and the rise of nationalism around the world.

“The future seemed very precarious at that time – and of course it turned out to be! I’ve adapted it a bit, it would be weird not to include the pandemic as it’s been a communal experience, but I don’t want it to be dominated by that. I want to have some fun as well, sing some songs, play some music, maybe do a bit of dancing – who knows?!”

Having grown up around Bath and Bristol, Bill has strong roots in the West Country, including Devon. His UK tours often start down here, after a visit to his Devonian friends.

“Before the Plymouth gigs I’m around Coombe Martin and Woolacombe especially – it’s near where I used to go as a kid. Mum and dad used to take the caravan down there on the North Devon coast. I love the sand dunes and the big wide expansive beaches. It’s really a place of great fondness.”

Bill said he holidayed “all the time” in North Devon, particularly Woolacombe, when his son Dax was young, surfing the sand dunes on a boogie board.

“I was thinking about Woolacombe the other day actually and talking to my dad. He went off and rooted around in a shoebox of old photos and came back with a photograph of me when I was about two on Woolacombe Beach and said, ‘there you go’. I was dressed up very smartly, my mum always liked to dress me up very smart. And we found another photograph of me, and I was wearing a bow tie – on the beach!

“What was she thinking? That we were going to meet royalty or something on the beach? Princess Anne was going to come past? It was hilarious!”

Bill lives in London now but said he’s considered moving back to the West Country at some point, especially since lockdowns have proved how flexibly we can work.

“When I go back to the West Country it always feels like I’m returning home and I feel a great fondness and connection with it. Obviously, that’s where I spent a lot of time as a kid. The sense memory of being in those places stays with you.

“It’s really where I started to learn how to do comedy. When I left school me and a mate set up a comedy night in Bath and we’d do gigs there and all-round the West Country – we used to go on little jaunts and do gigs all over the place. It’s a very fertile ground for comedy, lots of comedians come from there.”

Bill has been performing live comedy for decades, as well as appearing on our TV screens as Manny in Black Books, a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, on the QI panel, and presenting many natural history programmes.

His comedy includes his skills as a musician. And last year he delighted fans, and made many more, when he put on some dancing shoes to enter – and win – Strictly Come Dancing. He said usually he’d be busy with comedy shows in the pre-Christmas prime touring period so had turned Strictly down in the past, but last year, as things were different, he was able to give it a go.

“I’m a non-dancer. I was completely out of my comfort zone,” he laughed. “It was hugely daunting and overwhelming, you’re really thrown in the deep end. We were rehearsing for the launch show and I’m looking around at these other contestants – 19, 20-year-olds – and thinking, I’m 55, I’m not going to be able to keep up.

“I try to stay reasonably fit – I run and cycle and paddle board and generally try to keep things from seizing up, but you know the stamina you need is huge. It’s very tough. It’s very physically demanding because its relentless, but it’s also hugely rewarding and joyful. Getting out on the dancefloor, whirling around, it’s quite sort of magical. It’s something I never imagined myself doing. I’d always been very envious of other people that could do proper ballroom dancing, so getting the chance to do it was wonderful.

“In terms of confidence it’s made a difference. I’m used to performing in front of large crowds, that’s something I’ve done for years. The audience for Strictly is 12 million - I’d be like ‘12 million people, my god!’ - and there’s no retakes, it’s live, you know, you get one go at it and that’s it. What that does though, it does give you confidence.

“For me it gives you huge amounts of self-belief because it was something I’d had no training for before – I really felt quite vulnerable. I’d put myself out on a limb, but then to not only achieve, but achieve well, it gives you an enormous boost – I feel like I can do anything now.”