ONE thing you will not get from Ant Middleton is negativity. The former elite soldier turned TV presenter and adventurer is an irresistable force of positivity.

Even on the phone he exudes confidence. This may be the umpteeth interview he’s done to promote his Evening With tour - which comes to Blackburn on Thursday - but you would never know it.

He listens intently to the questions, he’s friendly with his answers but you just know you wouldn’t want to mess with him.

It is this unusual combination of inner confidence, chirpiness and steely resolve which has made the shows a massive hit, selling out around the country.

“I think it’s because I’m just being me,” says Ant when asked to explain the show’s success. “So many people aren’t themselves but I get up there and show people that I’m just like them.”

With his Popeye-like arms and a powerful physique honed by 13 years spent in some of the most elite sections of the armed forces, this initially sounds highly unlikely.

But both on stage and through his best selling autobiography, First Man In, Ant has revealed his past indiscretions and how he has learned from them.

“I’ve ripped myself apart and shown that I have made mistakes in the past and people can relate to that,” he said. “I don’t want people to think that I have had all this massive success all my life. It’s only been the last couple of years that I’ve really come out of the other end. That’s due to hard work and being focussed and driven but also through learning from my mistakes.”

Ant admits that writing the book was a harrowing experience as he looked back at his life.

“Writing the book was quite painful,” he said. “I’m very positive and a forward thinker. I don’t dwell on the past so going back into my life and bringing up the stories was difficult. I’ve come so far from the young military man to the man I am today, it was hard to write.”

Ant is not afraid to speak of past mistakes including receiving a 26-month jail sentence for assaulting two police officers during a night out in Chelmsford shortly after leaving the Special Boat Service.

“Looking at yourself and being brutally honest does free you,” he said. “It’s about holding yourself accountable. Society doesn’t cater for that now; there’s this mollycoddling of people and there’s a blame culture.

“People will try and make excuses for me saying it was because I was probably traumatised after being in the military - he served in the elite forces ‘holy trinity’ the Paras, Marines and SBS - but that’s not it. I got myself in these situations and I have to take responsibility for that.

“Once you hold yourself accountable, you can process that information, acknowledge it, learn from it and move on. A lot of people don’t do that. They just make excuses and the problem floats around in the background.

“Everyone has had that cringey moment in their lives. I just want people to know I’ve been there and done it to the extreme and that I’ve come out the other end.”

For Ant meeting his wife Emilie and then having a family - he has five children - were a turning point.

“She has been my rock,” he admits. “I love being a dad and a husband - that’s when I’m most at peace.”

Through TV shows such as SAS (Who Dares Wins) in which he puts recruits though the gruelling SAS selection process, Ant has become a popular if demanding TV personality.

“Who Dares Wins is me being how it is,” he said. “Yes, it’s brutal at times but when you think about it, you are picking the most elite soldiers in world and putting them in harm’s way.

“You want to pick people thinking ‘would I be happy with them stood beside me in a war zone? Would I be happy to put my life in that guy’s hands?’

“There aren’t that many people you would be prepared to do that with. So you need the best of the best.

“It’s not an office job or somewhere you will get a written warning if you mess up. If you mess up here, either you’re going to die or your pal’s going to die so the training has to be serious, hard and brutal.”

Away from the TV shows Ant is devoting a lot of his time to the Ant Middleton Fund which he has set up to help ex-forces personnel.

The fund, backed by the armed forces charity SSAFA, aims to provide mentors to help people who leave the forces settle into everyday life.

“We provide individual mentors who may be with a person for 12 or 18 months,” said Ant. They can help take the stress out of coming out of the forces even if it’s with things like sorting out your rent or dealing with official forms, all those aspects of life they have not really experienced before.”

As well as touring with his show, Ant is currently recording a new series of SAS (Who Dares Wins) and he will soon feature in a documentary about his attempt to climb Everest

“We did the first part of the tour in March and it went so well and so many people asked when would we do it again, I just thought I’d get out there with it,” he said.

An Evening with Ant Middleton, King George’s Hall, Blackburn, Thursday, February 6. Details from 0844 847 1664 or www.kinggeorgeshall.com

Other dates September 2018

1st - Liverpool Philharmonic Hall - click here for tickets

2nd - Nottingham Royal Concert Hall - click here for tickets

4th - York Barbican Centre - click here for tickets

5th - Alhambra Theatre Dunfermline - click here for tickets

6th - King George's Hall Blackburn - click here for tickets

7th - Venue Cymru Llandudno - click here for tickets

8th - Portsmouth Guildhall - click here for tickets

9th - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire - click here for tickets

11th - New Theatre Oxford - click here for tickets

12th - Sheffield City Hall - click here for tickets

14th - Regent Theatre Stoke-On-Trent - click here for tickets

15th - Scarborough Spa Grand Hall - click here for tickets

16th - O2 Apollo Manchester - click here for tickets