Stand-up comic Wil Hodgson, of Chippenham, is preparing to take to the stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival today for the ninth year in a row.

The 31-year-old has been known in the past for shows which heavily feature anecdotes about his home town, his time as a professional wrestler and his love of 1980s girls’ toys.

Today he starts a month long stint at the festival with his “Punkanory” show.

He said: “I always look forward to Edinburgh and it is the seventh time I have done an hour long show, which is really good.

“I usually start writing around Christmas time because I need enough time to try the material out, so it probably takes four to five months to get it all together.”

Mr Hodgson, a former Sheldon School pupil, who still lives in the town said: “Chippenham has been a main part of my shows in previous years, but not so much this year..

“This year the bigger story is set in Edinburgh,” he said. “Some of it is Chippenham-related, but not consciously, just because it is where I live.

“It is not as Chippenham-y as last year’s show, the one in 2007 or the radio show.”

On Friday Mr Hodgson appeared on Radio 4’s The Now Show, where he recounted tales of life lived as an outsider in a ‘man’s town’ in front of a live audience.

“I enjoyed doing the stuff for Radio 4 because it was a pilot show on my own, which is what I wanted to do,” he said. “It was a chance to do stand-up in a mainstream slot and not have to dumb it down; that is why it’s nice to do things like the Now Show.”