Jack Whitehall on Settle Down - his latest tour coming to Hull Bonus Arena, Leeds First Direct and Sheffield’s Utilita

A lot has happened since his last tour. “I’d met my life partner (Roxy Horner), I’d got a house and a dog and we've moved in together and it all felt like a new chapter of my life. And I was reflecting on this sometimes reluctant transition from the feckless period of misadventure that was my 20s. And then, halfway through writing the show and performing it, we found out that we're expecting a child, so there's this whole other aspect of the show now which will be about this impending arrival in my life, how that's going to change everything in another way.”

While he may lead a calmer personal life now, he still relishes in the unpredictable on stage.

Roles in films such as Clifford the Big Red Dog are “great fun,” says the 34-year-old, but “you're a little bit constrained in what you're able to do, especially when it comes to improv.

“It's amazing to be able to do stand up and be up on stage and just say whatever the hell you like, and not be beholden to anyone...no filter, no edit, no script you have to stick to. It's just completely freewheeling and every night can be different and you go off on tangents and interact with the crowd, and the possibility feels so endless.”

It comes after three other major tours. Whitehall: Stood Up in 2019/20, sold out arenas across the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. It came after the success of his earlier tours, Jack Whitehall Gets Around (2014) and At Large (2017), which was also filmed for Netflix. He has appeared in numerous television shows and films, including Bad Education and its silver screen adaptation, and in Disney’s Jungle Cruise starred opposite Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

While fatherhood is on his mind for obvious reasons this time around, family life has always been part of Whitehall’s work. In shows such as Travels with My Father, he has publicly but comically been at loggerheads with his own cantankerous dad Michael.

Whitehall says: “My parents have now become sort of free rein. We have this weird, cold war of attrition because they're slagging me off on their podcast every week. Therefore, I think it's like open season for me to throw them under the bus on stage and not really give them any power of veto.”

But when it comes to delivering stand-up material about his relationship with Horner, he says “that's something that we've had to navigate quite carefully.

“To sort of gently get her on board with the notion of the fact that I get up on stage every night can be quite indiscreet about our relationship. And it's a bit of an adjustment for her.”

He adds: “I also feel more than a bit guilty that this child that hasn’t even been brought into the world is already fodder for material and is just joked about up and down the country, and doesn't even really exist yet.”

Whitehall has enjoyed his stays in Yorkshire, though has raised eyebrows - not so much for his comedy but his antics in a charity football match.

A few years back he came up to Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane with a bunch of Fulham’s old pros and celebrities for the match against their Blades counterparts.

“They realised within about five minutes that the way they could get the biggest cheer from the crowd was by kicking me up into the air. It was like a game of It's a Knockout, they were just running around trying to kick me.

"Michael Brown was absolutely terrifying. He was marauding around this pitch hell bent on putting me on to a stretcher,” jokes Whitehall.

Later in the game, some set piece theatrics got him in his teammates' bad books.

“We were 1-0 up the whole game and then right at the end of the game, Chris Morgan, the Sheffield United captain, there was a corner and he whispered in my ear: ‘Push me’. I was like: ‘What?’ He said: ‘Push me. They’ve all come to see us, they haven’t come to see you lot, push me, I’ll fall over, the referee will give a penalty, it can be a draw, we’ll have penalty kicks, everyone will be happy’.

“I thought, OK, fine, I'm a team player, obviously I didn't want to ruin the day for all these lovely people that have come to support the charity. I shoved him, he threw himself over and the referee whistled for a penalty. Literally the whole of this Fulham team that I’d come up with turned and looked at me like velociraptors, they were absolutely furious. I pointed at Chris Morgan and said: ‘He told me to push him’. He holds his hands up: ‘I didn’t tell him to push me’. Absolutely threw me under the bus. He scores the penalty, then they won on penalties. I went back into the dressing room, no one would talk to me. I was ostracised from the group. I had to get on a coach for three hours, no one would speak to me. Barry Hayles, who was playing, couldn't even look me in the eye. I think I overheard him calling me a disgrace.”

Settling down, maybe – but settling some scores too.

Jack Whitehall brings Settle Down to Hull’s Bonus Arena on Saturday, June 3; Leeds’s First Direct Arena on Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18; and Sheffield’s Utilita Arena on Tuesday, June 20. Visit www.jackwhitehall.com