When I spoke to Gyles Brandreth, he was on his mobile phone, travelling by car to another stop on his one-man tour. This wouldn’t normally cause any problems, except for the fact that, as a man known for his witty repartee, the unreliability of mobile network coverage is not totally conducive to the retelling of amusing anecdotes. On more than one occasion, a fast-talking, crackling voice filtering down the line was followed by long periods of silence that were only interrupted by my interviewee occasionally remarking: “…that was a joke by the way…Hello?”

Yet in spite of the technical difficulties, Gyles Brandreth has the power to make me laugh out loud. This, you might plausibly think, would make my sense of humour seem dated; but Brandreth has come a long way from the jumper-wearing, countdown-appearing cliché of popular misconception. His regular appearances on the BBC’s One Show have brought his brand of loquacious and outrageous humour to an entirely new generation; his recent Edinburgh Fringe Festival show was a five-star sell-out; he's still the best performer on 'Just a Minute'.

But how to define Gyles Brandreth? Is he an actor, a raconteur, an ex-politician? Perhaps his most recent incarnation holds the answer. As he explained to me: “I enjoy theatre acting, but I’m too old for Hamlet and too young for Lear. I am, however, the perfect age for Lady Bracknell”. Of course: drag – the natural career move for the senior gentleman. His casting as the formidable and overbearing Victorian matriarch in an imminent production of Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is as perfect as it is ludicrous.

To the above list we might also add author and biographer. But again, the element of the performer is a constant in Brandreth’s many varied career. As he explained, his interest in writing the dual biography of the current monarch and her spouse – a volume entitled ‘Philip and Elizabeth: a portrait of a marriage’ – was chiefly inspired by the “interplay of gossip and history”.

What, then, of his career in politics? Was this another chapter in the life of a performer? Not a bit of it, apparently; Brandreth does not regard politics as merely acting by other means. In fact, it’s a serious vocation: “You don’t go into it for the money…it’s a full time job”. But what about the fame and the reputation? Again, my suggestions are batted away: “Take Anne Widdecombe as an example. Now, she’s not the Gwyneth Paltrow of modern politics, but people recognise her passion and conviction, whether they agree with her or not”.

But what of Gordon Brown? Was he not the hapless victim of a cult of celebrity; a man incapable of operating in a demanding media environment? “Gosh no, Brown was unpopular because he was hopeless”. (Despite our dispute on the matter, here we seem to have reached a point of agreement.) Likewise, Brandreth has no sympathy for the celebrity politician either: “I mean, Tony Blair looks like Dale Winton nowadays…and I think we can agree that that’s not exactly going to help him solve the middle-east crisis. People don’t want entertainers as politicians”.

Despite later recounting to me the emotions he felt on that morning in May 1997 when “the people spoke” and ejected Brandreth from the Commons, he retains a genuine affection for political discussion – “I’ve been keen on politics from a young age”.

But this talk of politics past and present hides the reality that, though he may have long since left the political arena, Brandreth has now returned to what he had been doing all along. At Oxford, he was a thespian; now, his one-man show (in which he assures me there is a scene “at Highgrove that involves Princes William and Harry and a hamster” – the details remain hazy) is a 45 stop tour of the country

I wondered if this obviously performative aspect of his persona hides a more reserved individual. What is the private Gyles like? “Monosyllabic”. This reply was either another result of the technical interference or a humorous reference to the quite opposite nature of his public personality. I pressed him on it: what is it like being Gyles Brandreth at the moment? “Oh, very jolly!”

Gyles Brandreth: 'The One-Man Show' will show at the Junction on Sunday October 30th