An urbane theology graduate, with one of the poshest voices in comedy, it’s hard to believe Miles Jupp’s love of cricket turned him into a couch potato after university.

“When I moved to London I shared a flat with a few others and someone would turn on Sky at 7.30am and it would stay on 2.30am the next morning,” he says.

“I wasn’t working very much then so sometimes I watched a match from first to last ball. Yes, I admit it was a life of takeaways and box sets, but hardly laddish.”

But now the 34-year-old and wife Rachel, whom he met at Edinburgh University, don’t even own a television and, as the father of four young children (including twins born during the London Olympics), the comic’s days of ball-by-ball viewing are long gone, even during the thrilling Ashes series in Australia.

“I’d like to be able to stay up all night watching but when you have young children that’s not really an option.”

He’ll be wide awake, though, when he brings his new comedy show, Miles Jupp is the Chap You’re Thinking Of, to St Albans, which he describes in typically deadpan style as: “Just me telling stories in a needlessly wordy 90 minutes.”

In it he covers the joys and tribulations of parenting in the modern age, hot drinks, the ageing process, other people’s pants “and things that make me angry”.

That last one comes as a surprise as the comedian is softly spoken and affable.

“My default setting is pretty calm,” he agrees, “but all sorts of things can bring the anger out. It comes from nowhere and goes back to nowhere within five minutes.”

What sets him off? “Silly little things – trying and failing to speak to a human being on the phone when I’m calling a business, pointless honking by drivers, people who dawdle, objects being in the way of something I’m reaching for....”

That last one may be something to do with the fact he recently had to visit hospital after a rough encounter with a phone charger.

“I yanked at it and the metal bit at the end sprang back and hit me in the eyeball. It was like being shot. Now if my wife hadn’t left something on top of it.....” By the time he gets to the end of the story, though, he’s laughing at the memory.

Miles is known to a generation of children as Archie the Inventor in CBeebies’ Balamory and was named comedian of year at the 2001 Leicester Comedy Festival, the same year he won the So You Think You’re Funny competition at the Edinburgh Fringe. He was last on the comedy circuit in 2011-12 with a nationwide tour of Fibber in the Heat.

He has been busy in acting roles; in The Thick of It on the BBC and in Alan Bennett’s People at the National Theatre, and in films, including The Monuments Men. Another project occupying Miles’ time has been recording the latest series of Rev, while also coming up is the TV pilot of Miles’ sitcom In and Out of the Kitchen.

Back to Miles Jupp is the Chap You’re Thinking Of and the comic reveals that some of it is about his take on current affairs. He says he dislikes making politics personal.

“Calling someone posh as an insult seems to me rather unfair; by all means hate David Cameron for his policies but not because he’s posh. Play the ball, not the man.”

Alban Arena, Sunday, June 1, 8pm. Details: 01727 844488, alban-arena.co.uk