COMEDIAN Ed Byrne brings his tour Roaring Forties to the Beck Theatre, Hayes, next Thursday and describes it as funny, pedantic and whingey.

What could be more satisfying than watching someone put the world to rights, about a subject we all encounter - ageing!

Ed discusses everything he’s done in the past two years, like going on a driver awareness course, having his second child with wife Claire, having a hernia operation and discusing a vasectomy to ‘bolt that door’.

Ed, 41, is fully embracing being ‘middle-aged’, despite a recent study that says middle-age now begins at 53.

He says it was probably dreamt up by a doctor in his fifties, wanting to avoid the label. He added: “If you’re saying that 53 is middle-aged, that is saying ‘I will live to 100’. I don’t agree.”

He says he is looking forward to getting older and predicts: “82 is a conservative estimate of how long I will live”.

Ed is proudly celebrating his age. “It’s fine – you just get out of breath more easily. Acting like a d*** becomes a lot more fun,” he insists.

He believes that, when you’re young, you’re expected to be rude or immature, so it’s not so funny, but, when you make silly jokes in your 40s, people’s shock leads to laughter.

If you’re going to be in the audience and are not ‘middle-aged’, Ed will explain what it will bring, so that you have things to look forward to.

He’s kind like that!

It’s his simple observations that make Ed so likeable and amusing. Even if you don’t agree with him, you will be captivated by his logic as he delivers it in such a plain-speaking manner.

He is looking forward to revisiting the Beck Theatre as he enjoys engaging with smaller audiences, rather than his previous sets at venues such as the NEC and Royal Albert Hall.

He said: “The audience need to feel the spittle from your mouth and you need to see the whites of their eyes. People need to see the comic in reality.”

There will be some mention of politics and Ed has some jokes about Ed Miliband that he was saving for panel-show Mock The Week.

He has previously appeared on the panel show and told me it will be back in the summer.

Ed says what he thinks, something a Hillingdon audience will relate to. His anecdotal style makes him that funny friend we all wish we had.

For tickets, visit the Beck Theatre website or call the box office on 020 8561 8371.