Top comedian Mark Steel comes to town this summer with a new stand-up show.

The host of Mark Steel’s In Town on BBC Radio 4 brings his latest take on the state of the world to Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake.

His last sell-out show was the autobiographical Who Do I Think I Am and revealed that his natural father was a world backgammon champion.

Now the newspaper columnist of the year and regular on BBC 1’s Have I Got News For You, BBC2’s QI and Radio 4’s The News Quiz returns to Cumbria with a completely different subject matter.

But he still manages to combine politics and the personal.

Not long ago, it seemed highly unlikely the UK would vote to leave the EU. We had a reasonable opposition to the Tory government, Donald Trump was a buffoon who surely wasn’t going to beat Hillary Clinton, and Mark was living the married suburban ideal.

Since then, he’s got divorced and the rest of the world has all gone wrong.

The show is called Every Little Thing’s Gonna Be Alright and ranges from his personal woes to privatisation, the housing crisis and the state of trains in Britain.

But he does hold out hope for the future: “Ideas that have been on the back burner for 30 years are now on the agenda. Young people really do believe that we should look after the old and sick, and I think that’s optimistic and encouraging.”

As well as his radio and TV shows, Steel has also presented the Bafta-nominated Mark Steel Lectures for BBC2, and has written several acclaimed books, including Reasons To Be Cheerful and What’s Going On.

n Mark Steel, Theatre by the Lake, July 14. For tickets visit www.theatrebythelake.com or call 017687 74411.