Peeling back the comedic layers of Jonathan Pie, Tom Walker opens up about his off-stage persona and the quirks that define him to Oliver R. Moore-Howells, including his approach to satire, unexpected hobbies, and the challenges of bringing the iconic character to life on stage for his first-ever arena tour.

Tom Walker could be fretting a little over his stagecraft: learning his lines, how best to deliver them in an impromptu fashion, and of course, hoping he’s hilarious when he assumes the mantle of splenetic news reporter Jonathan Pie. Even the script’s word count – 11,000, to be exact – is something he pays close attention to.

I catch up with Walker the night after his UK-wide tour, Jonathan Pie – Heroes And Villains premieres in a 60-seater London comedy club: it’ll be touring the UK, in decidedly larger rooms, for most of February and March, with a Cardiff leg in late Feb. Fortunately, things are looking good.

“It went pretty well. I’m feeling very happy. It’s so weird cos I’m not a gigging comedian. I don’t go out on the road and test this five minutes and that 10 minutes, like most comedians do. I sit down and write a script from start to finish and when I write the words ‘The End’, I say, ‘Right, I better start learning it!’”

What happens should the script not work? Walker thinks for a moment. “Good point! Well, if we were in serious trouble, we would find a rehearsal room for a week, and – because I write it all myself – if I thought, ‘this is just awful!’ I would have to get a writer or two in, spend a week doing 12-hour days and come up with something.”

The show’s title and theme, says Walker, is “about our hypocrisies – how we all think of things in terms of black and white, good or bad, heroes and villains. There are a lot of shades of grey in between.” But with many thinking he and Pie are the same person, who is the real Tom Walker?

“Well, I’m not a politico. I’m playing a politico. I’m not the guy down the pub ranting and raving about the Tories… I have my moments, but I’m not that guy. I deliberately lean on the differences rather than the similarities, cos the similarities are already there: my face is exactly the same as his, I talk exactly the same as he does. It’s not exactly method acting to get into him! I put on a tie and just get a bit more sweary.” Later in our chat, Walker will inadvertently echo his character when commenting on Priti Patel’s hypocrisy regarding the Post Office scandal. “There you go. I got a bit Pie-y there!”

And when he isn’t gigging, what is the man behind Pie into off the job? Having wrestled with the question, Walker says, “I like my movies. The last movie I saw was the remake of Alive. That was a barrel of laughs! I love a good plane crash. That’s a hobby. I read up on plane crashes a lot… so I’ve become a really bad flyer. Oh, and I’m a big Kate Bush fan! There you go. I don’t think I’ve ever said that in an interview before.”

Whilst Walker, like Pie, is a left-leaning Labour supporter, his father sits on the other side of the political aisle. Unlike his character, the two can have polite and sensible conversations about politics. “My dad is a natural Tory supporter, and I mean that with the greatest respect. Not a rabid Brexiteer, or a rabid… you know. Even he was like, ‘Liz Truss is ridiculous!’

“Whilst we’re not politically aligned, he comes to the shows – I’m sure he disagrees with some of it – and my stepmum is… you know, she’s lovely, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard her drop the C-bomb. So it must be a bit odd sat there listening to me eff and jeff. Also, with the last show, I had to tell my dad, ‘I’ve killed you off and made you a trade unionist. Fair warning!’”

“Mainly,” he continues, “my parents are very proud, I think. And very happy I’m not a poor, impoverished out-of-work actor in my mid-40s. Because at any moment, I could have rang them up telling them I’m coming home to live because I can’t afford my rent anymore.”

Despite several years as a high-profile character comic, Walker admits that as a budding actor he used to take himself rather seriously, aspiring to play Hamlet at the RSC or something similar. In some 20 years of trying “I couldn’t get an audition for love nor money, apart from a bit-part in Heartbeat. Now I’m on the tube in London and there’s posters with my face on it. It’s very odd but it wouldn’t have been the case if I’d continued doing little parts here and there.”

Talking about his heroes, Steve Coogan is very much one of them: one could observe Jonathan Pie as a mixture of Alan Partridge and Malcolm Tucker. The difference between Pie and Partridge, on the other hand, is that the former is actually a diligent broadcaster: it’s only off-air that he becomes a loose cannon, hence why Walker imagines his creation would be “pretty prosaic” should he be a panellist on Question Time.

As for Pie’s future, Tom explains there’s another possible series on BBC Sounds, and if all goes well, he’ll look at developing something for television. And a movie? “I’m sometimes asked about a Pie movie. I think what it would be is a comedy remake of [1976 satire, infamous for its news anchor character’s adlibbed live rant] Network. But let’s get him on the telly first before he gets on the silver screen, I would say.”

Surmising what he – or Pie – would do if they became Prime Minister, Walker doesn’t hesitate. “He’d abolish the monarchy, give public sector workers double their pay and tax billionaires to within an inch of their life. And I think he would last less time than Liz Truss!”

The actor himself is less drastic, “but I would certainly make the tax system fairer. This is a really boring one, but I would increase capital gains tax and I would lower income tax. That’s one way to solve the cost-of-living crisis overnight. And I wouldn’t allow us to continue to drill for oil and gas because I think the planet really is in trouble.”

Coming on to talk, as previously noted, about recent ITV docudrama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – in particular, its feat of actually sparking belated governmental intervention – and asked to consider whether he could envisage the Jonathan Pie brand achieving anything similar, Tom thinks for a moment. “I hope so. I mean, I don’t have any high, grand ideas that I’m here to change the world, or change hearts and minds. But what I would say is that I’ve done some environmental stuff and sometimes I approach that thinking, ‘I do want to change some people’s minds on this.’

“Also, a couple of elections ago I did some stuff about registering to vote, taking your vote seriously and voting for policies; I’m sometimes stopped by people who are now studying politics at university and have said, ‘That was the video that switched me on!’ That was the thing that made me go, ‘ah – maybe I should take it seriously’. I think that’s important: trying to get people engaged because they don’t want us engaged.”

Jonathan Pie: Heroes & Villains, Utilita Arena Cardiff, Sun 25 Feb.

Tickets: £33.60. Info: here

words OLIVER R. MOORE-HOWELLS