Five minutes with... John Bishop

John Bishop at Croke Park stadium for the All Ireland final

John Bishop, 52, embarks on a once-in-a-lifetime, 600-mile road trip around the Emerald Isle for his latest series, John Bishop's Ireland. Gemma Dunn finds out more.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE SERIES?

The series was filmed on the hoof because we only decided to do it a couple of days before I went to Ireland, where I was doing warm up gigs for my Winging It tour. We took a camera crew that followed me around Ireland doing shows at different venues, and I met lots of great Irish people along the way. So viewers will see the process of where a comedian gets the material from, they'll see the incidents and the people that I talk about on stage, but also, they'll get to learn how brilliant Ireland is.

CAN YOU TELL US WHERE YOU GO AND WHAT YOU GET UP TO?

I always had this idea about wanting to do a gig in every county in Ireland. I was purposely looking for places I hadn't been to before and that meant I ended up in places I'd never even heard of! Like Carrick-on-Shannon and Ennis, places like that. Then we'd find a venue there and do these gigs, sometimes in a pub or a little town hall, so the route itself was more of a loop around the country. I started in Dublin, went over to Cork, went up the West Coast and then ended right up the top in Coleraine and Portrush, and then down to Belfast and back to Dublin again. It was a great journey.

HOW DID THE GIGS COMPARE TO THOSE CLOSER TO HOME?

Going from a small pub to a big arena, there are little technical differences, but that's about it. The actual essence of the job doesn't change, the material doesn't have to change, and you don't have to change. Ultimately, being funny is the same whether you're in a small room or a big one.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF THE JOURNEY?