BALAMORY to cricket commentary – it’s quite a leap, but Edinburgh Fringe award-winning comic Miles Jupp is well-known for his versatility.

As an actor he is best-known to younger TV audiences as inventor Archie in Balamory and to adults as incompetent press officer John Duggan in BBC series The Thick Of It.

As a comic, he has been nominated for a Perrier Best Newcomer Award for his debut Edinburgh show, Gentlemen Prefer Brogues and was the recipient of the So You Think You’re Funny and The Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year awards in 2001.

Miles presents the topical comedy show, Newsjack for BBC Radio 7, as well as appearing on a plethora of comedy panel shows on TV. He recently starred in the BBC2 comedy Rev, alongside Tom Hollander.

Now Miles is touring with his critically-acclaimed sporting yarn, Fibber In The Heat (A Cricket Tale), a sell-out show in Edinburgh, which calls in at the Tivoli, Wimborne, on May 4.

Miles may enjoy being in the thick of it as a professional actor and funnyman, but not so long ago the north London comic found himself disillusioned by the bright lights of his chosen career. He decided to follow his boyhood dream and become a cricket journalist, by just pretending to be one.

Somehow Miles managed to convince enough people he was the man for the job and found himself heading off to India with the English sporting press.

A guest at the finest hotels in India and sharing a beer in the inner sanctum with cricketing legends, Miles started to worry he might not pass muster. Find out how he got on at the Tivoli theatre next month.