COMEDIAN Ed Byrne not only enjoys countryside pursuits - he has the chain saw to prove it - but he also turns his hand to cooking and tackled the Celebrity Bake Off challenge for Comic Relief.

“My lemon meringue pie won the star technical challenge, but my carrot cake was underdone, as in gooey in the middle,’’ said Ed. So the comedian wisely got out of the heat in the kitchen and took over hosting the show.

“It was much easier than being a contestant. I hosted it for Comic Relief and Sports Relief,’’ he said.

The comedian is bringing his latest project, Spoiler Alert, back to Swindon for a second date following his sell-out gig in November. Not only do Swindonians love the show but it also went down a storm at the Edinburgh Festival last year with a sell-out every night.

“It was the most fun I have had for a long time,’’ said Ed. “The Fringe is a good place for streamlining the show before taking it on tour.’’

Spoiler Alert is literally about how spoilt we are today, and Ed admits that he is one of the spoilers as he has two young sons.

“I spoil my two small boys rotten,’’ he laughed. “In the show I uncover what, as a dad, I am expected to do, and how I feel short changed as my dad wasn’t expected to do that for me. There are a lot of real anecdotes.’’

Ed has appeared on a number of television shows including Mock The Week, Have I Got New For You, The Graham Norton Show, Live At The Apollo and two shows for BB2 with his close pal Dara O’Briain, the Big Adventure show and Dara and Ed’s Road to Mandalay.

“The question is did I do an informative travel documentary for the BBC or did I go on holiday with my best friend? My wife says the latter!,’’ said Ed.

But it was not all plain sailing on location as he nearly had his head lopped off by a bamboo cane during a leg rowing race.

“The guy behind grabbed me in time otherwise that could have been very nasty.’’

Tickets to see Ed Byrne with Spoiler Alert on Tuesday, March 6 at the Wyvern Theatre from 8pm are £27.50 on 01793 524481 or visit www.swindontheatres.co.uk - Flicky Harrison