In the past when you put Sarah Millican outside, she asked things like: “Why? Where is the taxi? Do I need a cardie?” and said things like: “There’ll be wasps. I’ve nothing to sit on. Is that poo? Can we go home?” But things have changed, now she has outside slippers.

She can tell a chaffinch from a tit (hey). But she still can’t tell if it’s an owl or her husband’s asthma.

Sarah Millican is venturing outside. Bring a cardie.

In just seven years, Sarah, from South Shields, Tyne and Wear, has gone from winning the 2008 Best Newcomer Award for her debut show Sarah Millican’s Not Nice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to becoming one of the UK’s most successful and multi-award winning comedians.

She was voted the People’s Choice Queen of Comedy at the 2011 British Comedy Awards and has fronted three series of her critically acclaimed BBC2 series The Sarah Millican Television Programme, for which she received two BAFTA nominations.

A regular guest on primetime shows such as The Graham Norton Show, QI, 8 Out of 10 Cats, The Jonathan Ross Show, Live at the Apollo and The Royal Variety Performance, Sarah also holds the record as the highest selling female comedian in the DVD market.

She is set to delight her fans as she heads out on the road again with her fourth stand-up show, Outsider, a 119-date tour which began last October and comes to Bournemouth’s Pavilion Theatre from March 5 to 7.

The Bournemouth dates are sold out, in keeping with Sarah’s previous track record of three sell-out tours. Her last tour, Home Bird, was seen by more than 200,000 people, while her combined tour DVD sales stand at 700,00.

Despite being described as “a natural storyteller who charms the audience through her skilfully delivered gag-packed anecdotes about life’s curiosities”, Sarah hasn’t always been drawn to perform.

In fact she had never even graced the stage before husband Andrew Millican left her unexpectedly in 2004.

“I got divorced,” she says simply, when asked how her career in stand-up began.

Sarah found solace in attending writing workshops in local theatres, such as at Newcastle’s Live Theatre and the Custom House, South Shields.

“I had days when I felt like I could do nothing and then days when I felt like I could do anything,” she says, remembering.

“On one of the latter days, I did a workshop for people who had written but never performed. As part of that workshop, I read a monologue to an audience. Six months later, I decided to try stand up.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

In February 2013 she was listed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

Alongside her professional career, Sarah’s personal life has gone from strength to strength. She has been in a relationship with fellow comedian Gary Delaney, whom she announced she had married at the end of 2013.

  • Sarah Millican appears at Bournemouth’s Pavilion Theatre from March 5 to 7. Tickets are sold out, but for details of other venues, visit sarahmillican.co.uk.