A lot has happened to Miles Jupp since his last tour finished at the London Palladium in 2017...

As well as acting in series including The Full Monty, Trigger Point and The Durrells, in comedy mode he’s appeared on shows such as Frankie Boyle’s New World Order and Have I Got News For You. Most notably, though, he suffered a brain seizure in August 2021 and had major neurosurgery. The seizure is the subject of his new touring show, On I Bang, which focuses on the funnier side of the experience. What’s On caught up with him to find out more...

Your major life event in 2021 forms the basis of your new show, On I Bang. Without any spoilers, what happened?
Well, the big spoiler is... I survived. I had a brain seizure, which was actually quite lucky. It meant I was taken to hospital, where they ran tests. So having the seizure was an element of fortune because it's like a big helpful sign that something is up. And that something was a brain tumour the size of a cherry tomato, which had to be removed.

What were you doing when it happened?
I was filming the ITV series Trigger Point. I'd just finished my scene. Ludicrously, my character, a radio host, is speaking and then a bomb goes off roughly when it felt like a bomb had gone off in my own head. Luckily I was in a work environment, which meant there was a medic on the set, so they wrestled me into the appropriate position. It was only a day's work, but taking that job might have saved my life.

Was it completely unexpected?
The tumour was there, but I was totally unaware of it. They can't date it. It's not like trees or fossils. The swelling of the tumour causes the pressure. And it's the pressure that eventually causes a seizure. It could have happened at any time, but until about five minutes before, there was nothing. I just started feeling very dizzy very quickly, and there was some flashing of lights. I remember falling forward and then some people holding me down, and then it's just like a series of moments of consciousness. Next time, I was in an ambulance, and then I was in A&E at West Middlesex Hospital.

Has it changed your outlook on life?
It's very good for putting things in perspective. Not that I don't moan about all the pathetic things other people moan about as well, but after a while, you can go “Oh, I've got the freedom to moan about it!” You just think about things in a different way.

It must have been very worrying for your family...
I could be lying in a hospital bed plugged into stuff and actually feeling fine, whereas from their point of view it's “Oh no, he's lying in a hospital bed with lots of stuff plugged into him!” And they got the call from the programme's line producer to say I was on my way to hospital. So that's quite a shocking thing to get when you’re on the bus! The luxury for me was that you go, “Well, all I can do is trust these people.” In a way it's sort of freeing. It's all the unknowns that are stressful. Even dealing with being lucky is stressful, because you think, why? Why me?

You had surgery after three weeks to remove the tumour...
It was accessible but not totally straightforward. I found being in hospital very uplifting, actually - partly because you're just surrounded by people who are very caring. There must have been about five other people on that ward all in the same boat. So you don't feel alone in that sense. It is scary, and I've not experienced a thing like that. I can't pretend that it isn't.

So On I Bang is all about this event, before, during and after?
This is the show. It's a story told in a stand-up style. I promise you there are lots of jokes. It's not me moaning about unsatisfactory customer experience or something I've noticed about luggage. Hopefully it's a pure piece of storytelling, with a beginning, a middle and an end. I got a letter from a guy who saw a work-in-progress gig, and he's been through the same thing. He was saying people around him were worried, but it was very cathartic for him.

You started out as a stand-up, but many people will know you as an actor. You've done so much, from Balamory and Harry Potter to Rev and The Thick Of It...
I think filming my part in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix took 20 minutes! My costume fitting took longer! I'm a sucker for a straight offer without an audition. There's a difference between working hard and working a lot. And I think if you're creating the work yourself, that counts as working hard. If you're just accepting the work that you're given, that's not the same. Working on my own has its pleasures in terms of control and being able to fix something quickly or make adjustments, but I really like the bit when you're making something in a team. The rehearsals are the best bits.

With acting, you don't know what's next...
I got a nice part in a thing in Antwerp, and then a week later I did one audition for Disney+'s The Full Monty on a Friday, got the part on the Tuesday, the next Friday had a costume fitting, then started filming on the following Monday for six months.

You clearly enjoy performing, but stand-up seems to be your first love.
I like walking out onto a stage somewhere. I think the best view of a theatre is nearly always from the stage. I find there's a sort of romance about touring. I remember with my show Fibber In The Heat appearing in Swindon on a Monday night. I turned up and there were 170 people there. I don't know Swindon; I didn't know anyone in Swindon. And I remember thinking “It's great that 170 people have come here to watch this thing.” I just love touring for that. So I really look forward to walking on stage again and telling a story. And hopefully, you know, we'll have fun.

Miles Jupp takes his On I Bang tour to The Roses, Tewkesbury, on Thursday 1 February, and then to Birmingham Town Hall on Thursday 8 February