AFTER six weeks off, satirical comedian Steve Punt is slipping back into the smoking jacket and suspenders to play the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show as he resumes his participation in Richard O'Brien's cult musical in York.

Last seen on the Grand Opera House stage with his partner in topical comedy, Hugh Dennis, in February 2014, Punt returns there from Monday to Saturday, this time with fellow principal cast members Diana Vickers (as Janet), Ben Freeman (Brad) and Liam Tamne (Dr Frank N. Furter).

Punt has co-hosted The Now Show on BBC Radio 4 since its inception in 1998 and also presents the university quiz The Third Degree and the light-hearted investigative show Punt PI for Radio 4, while his television writing and performing credits include Canned Carrott, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Punt And Dennis, Mock The Week and Horrible Histories and in 2011 he played his lookalike, Monty Python's Eric Idle, in BBC4's Holy Flying Circus.

Playing the Narrator in O'Brien's 1973 rock'n'roll musical, with its combination of science-fiction, schlock-horror, fruity comedy, riotous music and very enthusiastic audience participation, is something completely different, however.

"I started just before Christmas in Brighton, and if you're going to do any show over Christmas that's quite like an adult pantomime, then this is the perfect show for that, especially in Brighton," says Steve.

Was he nervous before the first night, even at the age of 53, with all his performing experience behind him? "Actually I felt particularly nervous because I had a recording for The Now Show at lunchtime, when we would normally record in the evening," says Steve.

"It was like a bad sitcom: there were roadworks between the BBC and the station, and then the train ground to a halt outside Clapham Junction for an hour, so I ended up missing the dress rehearsal and that made me even more nervous. But the director said to me, 'don't worry if you don't remember every line because the audience know them and will shout them out anyway'!"

Sure enough, the audience gave Steve a huge lift and, what's more, "the thing with comedy is that it gives you thinking time because of the laughter". "So everything went slower than I'm used to, and I did remember all the lines, and in the right order," he says. "The audience also seems to adopt you because you're in a show they love and they're keen to support you."

Steve recalls seeing the film version when "I was 15 and it was a bit of thing" and so, like so many beside him, he has become steeped in a show where it is quite the norm for people to gather outside the dressing in little basques, and "that's just the men," he says.

He has taken the show in his stride. "I think, as with The Now Show, if you have fun on stage, it will communicate itself to the audience," he says. "What I particularly love about this show is that whereas with an awful lot of stuff I do it's freshly written and there's room for spontaneity, Rocky Horror is a well-oiled machine, and it's a different process: every moment, every gesture, every line has been carefully slotted in."

Tickets for the York run are on sale on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york