Talksport radio host Charlie Baker on the delights of country living

A devoted Torquay United fan, he would live in Devon if he could – but can’t. The show is his way of expressing what he feels for the county.

Dates include Guildford’s G Live on Thursday, October 5 for an hour of stand-up drenched in manure, cider and clotted cream, countryside comedy straight from the horse’s mouth without a horse in sight.

“I work for Talksport and I do that three or four days a week and that's taken me out of the circuit to an extent but before that I was doing 300 gigs a year. I was on the road for about 15 years and that's great because that's how you get to learn your trade. I loved it. I loved working hard, and really just being an artist doing that is a privilege. The great thing is you work hard and you get a career. Gigs are not badly paid. Some are better than others but it was a way of making a living and the great thing is if you think of joke in the afternoon you can do it in the evening. It won't always work. But you can try!

“But I also love sport. I love football particularly and I've also always loved radio. I have always done bits and pieces of radio and I also love hosting. But as you get older, you get a family and I've got two kids now and you just don't want to be on the road all the time.”

But equally it's great to be back there – doing a show with a great title: “The title didn't come first. Sometimes you come up with the title, and then you think you are going to write a show about it but with this one there were a few choices. I was thinking about Devon Knows I'm Miserable Now or Devon Is A Place On Earth but I like this one. It's a show about the countryside, about rural living, about growing up in the countryside and about the differences between the countryside and the city.

“Growing up in the countryside isn't always easy for young people. It gets dark at 3pm. The nearest pub is miles away. But as an adult I absolutely love it. You can see who you want to see and you can be who you want to be. I think the pubs are better and I think the community is better. I lived in the city as a teenager and in my early 20s. I was in London for eight or nine years but I always found the countryside calling me back, Devon in particular.”

Charlie lives in Oxfordshire but would certainly live in Devon if he could. Devon but not Cornwall. He is very specific: “Actually I'm very rude about Cornwall in the show. I was doing a showing in St Austell and I thought ‘Oh no!’ but actually people love it if you're rude about them particularly if you've done the research!”

There is a downside to living in the country though: “You're surrounded by death. There's death everywhere on the road, roadkill everywhere. And also people are rude because people keep themselves to themselves. But actually I think in Devon it is maybe not so much rude as just suspicious.”

Charlie’s many TV appearances include: The Last Leg, Richard Osman’s House of Games, Harry Hill’s Tea Time, Comedy Central at the Comedy Store, The Great British Bake-Off: An Extra Slice, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala.

He was the also lead in Harry Hill and Steve Brown's critically acclaimed musical Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera.