BBC comedy star admits the one thing the broadcaster wouldn't allow him do

Comedian and actor Ian Smith, who has appeared on BBC's Have I Got News For You and Live At The Apollo, has admitted there was one stunt his bosses at the broadcaster wouldn't let him undertake for his Radio 4 show Ian Smith is Stressed, which saw him discuss the things that stress him out, and investigate bizarre methods of relaxation. While they OK'd most things, including driving over a car in a tank with his hairdresser in Slovakia, cow hugging and attempting to land a plane, bosses said no when he asked to try a rage room.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk in advance of taking his new show Foot Spa Half Empty to Edinburgh Fringe, he said he "understands" their reasoning. "I guess the only one that the BBC wouldn't let us do for the radio series, and I kind of understand, was that I wanted to go to one of those rage rooms, where you just smash up TVs.

"I think the BBC felt that it was slightly glorifying violence as a stress reliever," he pondered. "And I could see that point that it maybe wasn't the best thing to put out there on the BBC, me saying, if you're stressed out, you should smash up as many things as you can. So, yeah, that was the only one that they were not on board with," he said.

His Edinburgh show will deal with similar themes. When asked if he perhaps feels he can't be funny without stress in his life he answers in the negative.

"I don't think it's a fear of not being funny without it," he shared. "But I feel like I have an obligation to live as interesting or ridiculous a life as I can.

"So I kind of feel if I have a genuine, stressful thing that I want to talk about, I want to pepper it with these unusual experiences so it becomes a fun and silly way of talking about something with this kind of serious undercurrent," he said.

Despite testing out numerous methods that are supposed to relieve his stress, Ian admitted he hasn't yet managed to alleviate it, which is reflected in the new show.

"This is a slightly more personal show, I guess. I'm trying to still add in my usual stress relief and unusual escapades. I thought I was going to be writing a show about how my life changed in quite a positive way (after trying these methods), and wondering if that chimes in with my stressful working-class northerner persona," he said.

"I thought it would be about the fact that things are sort of going a bit better for me in life. But 'luckily', in inverted commas, lots of very stressful stuff has happened from March onwards.

"So my shows completely changed, and I'm back to being stressed again, which seems to be my unavoidable fate at the minute," he laughed.

Ian Smith: Foot Spa Half Empty will be at the Edinburgh Fringe from July 29 to August 24 and then on tour from November. Tickets and more details are here.