After a 15 year hiatus from live performing, Ben Elton has today announced his return to stand-up comedy with a 53-date UK and Ireland tour that kicks off next September with a date at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin.

Elton is one of the most celebrated comedians of his generation, having first gained notoriety through hosting Channel 4’s Saturday Live in the 1980s. He subsequently went on to establish himself as a respected author, playwright, actor and director, penning best-selling novels and co-writing hit TV shows such as The Young Ones and Blackadder in the process.

Now returning to the medium from which he has had such a lengthy absence, Elton "promises to try and make sense of a world which appears to have gone stark raving mad" and will travel the length and breadth of the UK whilst doing so, in addition to his dates in Olympia and Belfast's Ulster Hall.