Gilbert's all set for the grape escape

The BBC New Comedy Award winner is bringing his Who’s Eaten Gilbert’s Grape? show to Sheffield on Wednesday as part of the Grin Up North comedy festival.

The Welsh misery proved a hit at this year’s Edinburgh Festival with the follow-up to his previous shows Knocking On Heaven’s Door and the debut Perrier newcomer-nominated Rhod Gilbert’s 1984.

So, the inspiration for this latest romp? Rhod apparently watched the movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? and was immediately struck by the parallels with his own life.

In the movie Gilbert is trapped in a mundane existence in the fictional backwater of Endora. And Rhod reckons he knows how that feels.

He claims to have spent 25 miserable years with a fictional family in Llanbobl, a Welsh village he invented. And where, in the movie, Gilbert’s life had taken a slight detour Rhod’s has “fallen asleep at the wheel and driven into a ravine”.

You may recognise Rhod’s brooding charisma from TV appearances on Mock The Week, The Charlotte Church Show, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Dara O Briain Talks Funny and BBC3 sketch show Comedy Shuffle.

Rhod is at the Crucible on Wednesday.