Jonathan Pie is ready to make resort headlines in Blackpool with Fake News (The Corona Remix) at Blackpool Grand Theatre

Described by comedian Rory Bremner as ‘the most important satirical creation since Partridge’- Pie has amassed more than 1.6 million Facebook followers for his ‘lively’ discussions - with the ‘frustrated news reporter’ having now enjoyed international fame.

And this Thursday, the no holds barred personality - the creation of actor and comedian Tom Walker - arrives in Blackpool.

It will be 41-year-old Tom’s first ever visit to the resort and he will be presenting his all new one-man show Jonathan Pie: Fake News (The Corona Remix) - bringing the fictional broadcaster’s unique insights and rants on UK politics and all topics from Brexit to Lockdown to the stage of the Grand Theatre.

“I’m not giving too much away with the show when I say that in this meeting with Jonathan, the audience are greeted with a headline and the news he has been ‘cancelled.’

“He’s been cancelled for an on air mistake, which is unpleasant and worthy of being sacked.

“And we learn about what happened, how and why it happened and lockdown has a lot to do with it.

“He has spent the last year in his spare bedroom. He is a 42-year-old divorcee, estranged from his son and spent lockdown on his own - he has gone mad.

“What’s interesting I think is that we all for a time went into lockdown thinking 'this is alright, I’m coping okay' and it’s now only the other side we’re seeing the real damage that was done.”

Due to massive fan demand and a critically acclaimed sell out UK 2019 live tour under his belt, Tom has rewritten and updated the show to bring Jonathan up to date in a new PC (post-Corona) world.

But it is almost by accident and through Tom’s own frustrated career path, Jonathan ever came to be in the spotlight.

Tom explains: “Honestly after years of being told to write my own work in the end it took being permanently unemployed to make it happen.

“I always wanted to be an actor and nobody would give me a job so it was at that point I decided to write my own stuff and weirdly I felt I had this character in my head.

“The basic premise was ‘what happens to the news reporter or news reader the minute the guy says cut’ because I used to sit and watch the news and be there thinking you honestly can’t believe that - you personally as a human being can’t believe what you are saying.

“They’re reading a script and the minute the earpiece comes out it’s like ‘What is this? It’s nonsense you’re asking me to say.’

“It’s just the first few ideas I had and then wrote down happened to be political, outside Westminster. He could have been an entertainment correspondent, he could have been a sports commentator but I know no nothing about sports.

“What happened is when he began to take off it just happened to be the politics that became the hook for people but funnily enough it wasn’t the hook for me, it was this amusing, irate, angry news reporter.

“It took a year for me to fully understand that people were coming to it in a way to make sense of the world we find ourselves in and I struggled with that for time, that sense of responsibility.

“But now I’ve found that happy medium and I love this show, I’ve loved writing it - especially the jokes and I love challenging the audiences politically - this wasn’t something I asked for.

“I’m not a political commentator or campaigner - I’m an actor, a comedian an entertainer. I write things that are exciting and funny to perform.”

One of Pie’s earliest videos - his response to the election of Donald Trump - was viewed more than 150 million times worldwide.

A more recent clip on the confusion surrounding wearing masks has been viewed over 10.4m times on Facebook.

Some tickets are still available for Thursday’s Show at 7.30pm at the Grand Theatre, priced £31

Visit https://www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk/event/jonathan-pie-fake-news-corona-remix