Comedians including Dara O’Brian and Jason Manford support Edinburgh Fringe act who had 1 audience member

Some of the UK’s top comedians have offered their support to an actress after just one person turned up to watch her performance at the Edinburgh Fringe. Actress Georgie Grier shared a tearful photo after her one woman show and wrote: "There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one woman play, ‘Sunsets’ at #edfringe. It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine...?"

Her message led to words of comfort from celebrities, who said they had experienced the same early on in their careers. Dara O Briain replied: "Soon, you’ll dine out on this anecdote. More than once I had to buy my audience a drink, as a thank you for being the only ones there."

Comedian Jason Manford also offered encouragement, and said: "It’s absolutely normal ... for one person to rock up to your show, especially at the beginning of Edinburgh, and also for you to be a bit upset or annoyed or p***** off about it. That’s totally fine as well."

Manford revealed that, when he performed at the Fringe in 2004 and 2005, "it was such a slog and I was out in the rain and I was flyering and people weren’t coming". The comedian added: "I got total impostor syndrome. How much is this costing me? What am I doing here?"

Ms Grier thanked those who reached out to offer their support - and said her play, which is about romcoms and families, is on every day until 27 August. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival will see hundreds of thousands of people descend on the Scottish capital this month.