SWINDON FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE: I NOW know a side to Alistair McGowan I never knew existed. He's not just about impressions you know. There's also a vulnerable poet lurking beneath the surface.

It was revealed that back stage he had admitted he hadn't brought his poems together in a book because he didn't think they were good enough.

You could tell he was more comfortable with impressions but his poetry was just as sharp.

It was the comedian's third visit to Swindon Literature Festival and what better town to be in to confess a love of trains and the track.

He has an astounding repertoire of over 100 impressions we were told by local journalist Shirley Ludford.

But it was not just back-to-back mickey-takes of celebs. I only counted 21 although he did do two twice Gary Lineker because he's easy to do and Angus Deaton because he has such an uncanny likeness to him anyway.

McGowan admitted he nearly missed his moment and was at the ripe age of 40 before he landed his big break The Big Impression.

Rory Bremner got his when he was in his 20s but he's not bitter.

After decades of bit parts his first TV appearance was as a doctor on kids' programme Children's Ward he got noticed in the nick of time. And while some of his poems were like funny sketches off his series when you know there's a chunky punchline on its way and others, like one called Hair Loss, which began 'I went to Spalding when I was balding', some had more subtle laughs.

And then there was the one that had no punchline at all but captured the sadness of a twitchy character who talked too much while on a train to Coventry that made you almost want to cry.

The conversation then moved onto a visit he had made to a concentration camp and he looked visibly moved.

He's into green issues, has not ruled out becoming a politician, is a passionate idealist and fancies doing a bit of Shakespeare in the future. The funny man was full of surprises.

And of course, his stint at the festival couldn't end without referring to that embarrassing slip-up when journalists rummaged through his bins and found personal details despite him fronting an ad warning about the dangers of identity theft.

"If they had looked in the bin the next week they would have found lots of egg that I had scraped off my face," he said.

Tamsin Davis