Leeds-born Ted Lasso and Intelligence star Nick Mohammed brings Mr Swallow to homecoming stand-up gigs at Leeds City Varieties

Mohammed is about to return to his home city with two stand-up dates at Leeds City Varieties on April 5 and 14 (the second is already sold out) - bringing Mr Swallow back to his West Yorkshire origins.

The comic and actor had “caught the performing bug” as a boy and from as young as four or five was doing magic shows in church halls and old people’s homes.

But as a relative latecomer to acting – he didn’t sign with an agent until his mid-20s or land a “proper TV role” until his 30s – he could never have imagined, for one, that he would star alongside Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso, one of the most popular shows on our screens. Or that he would be “literally friends” with Friends star David Schwimmer.

But he can’t wait to come home for his stand-up shows, which are part of his tour The Very Best & Worst of Mr Swallow.

“I'm so excited about this,” he says over the phone. “I’ve obviously done gigs in Leeds as part of mixed bill nights and stuff but I've never done a full hour-plus show there. I feel like it’s been long overdue and I love Leeds, obviously I was born and raised there and my mum and dad are still in Cookridge. We go home every few months but it'll be such a joy to perform at the City Varieties.”

His first experience of television, in a one-off children’s show, was filmed at the venue “so the idea of getting to go back and perform, that it just feels like completing the circle,” he says.

He adds: “I love Leeds, love the people, have such fond memories of my upbringing now and every time I go back home and visit, so it's going to be an absolute joy. And to be Mr Swallow, who is ostensibly from Leeds as well, that feels like a real treat too.”

Mohammed, 42, lived in Meanwood until he was about seven, when the family moved to Cookridge. He attended Green Road Primary before heading to St Michael’s in Headingley and then on to Abbey Grange for secondary school and sixth form.

He went on to study geophysics at the University of Durham and then to Cambridge to do a PhD in the same subject, but cut it short a year to do a Masters of Philosophy so that he could pursue comedy.

Then he moved to London, where he worked in a bank by day and gigged by night. Over the years, Mr Swallow has been a character to which he has returned, taking him to events such as the Edinburgh Festival.

“I mean he's an absolute lunatic. He sort of tries his hand at absolutely everything,” says Mohammed, describing the character.

"He’s part-magician, part-know-it-all, part-lecturer, part-busybody, and he’s always very easily distracted – even when he’s doing the show he’s never really learned his lines. He’s quite clumsy.

"There’s a lot of inspiration from quite old school sort of variety (shows) that I used to love. Frank Spencer (and) Tommy Cooper, even. Stuff that I was brought up on and I found really funny as a kid. That’s sort of at the heart of it.”

The show serves as a ‘best-of’ compilation of material from the last five to 10 years, he says, but new routines have been included to keep it fresh. Audiences can expect Mr Swallow’s description of Les Misérables, see him try to solve a Rubik’s Cube, memorise a deck of playing cards and “do some pretty horrendous maths while on roller skates”.

He has become recognisable as characters in television comedies, though. Mohammed was working with British comedy legend Julia Davis on a pilot for Channel 4, which Schwimmer –most famous for playing Ross on Friends – had seen and had wanted to get involved. That project didn’t go anywhere, but Schwimmer was cast as the American NSA agent working alongside GCHQ in the Sky One show Intelligence, which was created, written, executive produced by his co-star Mohammed, and first aired in 2020. Mohammed says: “He's been a delight to work with and you know, it's odd to think that we're friends, that we’re literally friends, because I'd watched Friends the show growing up and obviously, like everyone else, adored it and him in particular, he's just outstanding in it. So that has been a joy.”

An hour-long special of Intelligence will be coming out over the Easter weekend.

In Ted Lasso, Mohammed’s character Nate has gone from kit man to assistant coach to villainous rival manager and, having earned him two Emmy nominations, the experience has been life-changing for the actor. “They (the cast) were all at the White House the other day. I couldn’t make it because my wife and I just had our third child and I've not been able to do any of the American press out there, I’ve been doing it all virtually, but they were all at the White House talking about mental health. Apparently Joe Biden's a fan of the show. I mean it’s just surreal, the reach of that show.

"Again, I’m definitely indebted to that. But, you know, this was just an audition that happened to go my way, it very easily could have not. I remember I was filming Intelligence when the audition came through, and I just had to sort of rush it, cobble it together in my lunch break on an iPhone. It was easily one of those things that could have gone another way.”

Tickets for The Very Best and Worst of Mr Swallow at Leeds on April 5 are available at: www.berksnest.com/nick