77343-25QUESTION: How do you get Swindon's twentysomethings to spend a Sunday night at the Wyvern Theatre?

Answer: Invite one half of the comedy duo responsible for a nineties cult favourite football show.

David Baddiel may have done a lot in his time, including written three novels, but it's for Fantasy Football League that he is most readily known.

The man who helped pen one of the best football anthems ever heard Three Lions was in town as part of the Swindon Festival of Literature.

And this being a literature festival, it meant the emphasis was on his books rather than his comedy antics.

Interviewed by Sara-Jane Arbury, the hour-long talk looked in depth at his latest work, The Secret Purpose.

For those who hadn't read the book it must have been akin to seeing a band whose songs you've never heard.

They might sound all right, but you can't really get into it.

Baddiel was at his best, not when answering the well thought out if rather long questions of his inquisitor, but when bantering with the audience.

Whether it was him killing an ant on stage or one of the more senior members of the audience seemingly choking, you could tell he enjoyed the chance to escape the examination and have a little light relief.

Towards the end it was the turn of the public to put their questions to him.

And it soon became apparent that there was more interest in football and Frank Skinner than the painstaking research into World War Two for his latest book.

The subject of following Swindon Town as a religion was raised. The importance of prayer was the response.

Gareth Bethell