Jack Dee has been away from stand-up for six years, so why is he so eager to return to touring now? “Because I want to spend less time with my family,” he says in that familiar, deadpan tone.

“I think that’s a very good reason for touring. Everyone with children will surely agree with that. I think a little bit of absence from your family is actually a good thing. There are far too many diligent parents out there overdoing it and putting us to shame.”

Yes, Jack is back – and he couldn’t be happier about it. After spending the last six years making his acerbic BBC2 sitcom, Lead Balloon, and writing his memoirs, Thanks For Nothing, which he modestly dedicated to himself (“without whom none of this would have been possible”), the comedian is returning to his first love: stand-up.

Jack, who is also the poker-faced host of Radio 4’s legendary I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, has spent the past year warming up his live act. And the good news is, the show is in great shape.

A star for the last two decades, Jack is one of the finest stand-ups in the country. You’ll no doubt be delighted to hear that he is equally funny offstage - smart, wry, urbane, which is impressive during an hour-long interview.

A hugely charismatic stage presence, his trademark, naturally, is turning misery into mirth. When Jack is agonising over the slightest niggle, no other stand-up can touch him. As he moans about the day-to-day annoyances that plague us all, he is quite simply, the best.

The comedian, who has been very happily married to his wife Jane for the past 23 years and who is the proud father of four children, admits that he was initially nervous about his return to the stand-up arena. But the moment he stepped onstage once again, his love for the genre was rekindled.

He said: “At the first warm-up gig I did after that six-year break, I felt like a complete novice. I didn’t know where to begin.

“But almost immediately it came back. I’ve never taken it for granted – to do it well takes real application. But I’ve been gigging all year now, and it’s felt really good.”

The comic, who will this autumn also be chairing a new Sky Atlantic panel game, Don’t Sit In The Front Row, explains that he has really regained his appetite for stand-up. “Six years ago, I had done a very very long tour and I was tired. The day you stop enjoying stand-up is the day you should stop doing it. So I had to step away from it and recharge my batteries.

“Now, I’m very glad to say, I’ve got my passion back. Touring the country doing warm-ups has been a really nice experience and has put me in a very good place for this tour.”

According to Jack, the only downside of touring is that, “When I come home, Jane notices that it takes two or three days for me to come down from the stand-up cloud. “I have been in the mindset of constantly trying to find the funny, and it takes a while to shake that off. “I’m sure she finds it very tiresome and is quite glad when I’m not around.”

Another constant in Jack’s comedy has been his grumpy persona, a fact that has led his friend and fellow comedian Jeremy Hardy to dub him, “A little ray of sleet.” But his curmudgeonly image only serves to enhance his material.

And that of course is why all love him.

  • Jack Dee Live 2012 comes to Oxford’s New Theatre on Sunday, September 16, at 8pm.
  • For tickets go to atgtickets.com