Bridget Christie is, by her own admission, a worrier. Climate change, cyber espionage, Brexit, Trump, plastics, air pollution, nuclear threat, inequality, the world we’re leaving for our children, Doritos for women – they all cause her anxiety. The good news for comedy fans, however, is that those concerns are translated into laugh-a-minute shows that have been garlanded with awards and sell out wherever she performs.

Her latest show, What Now? is a follow-up to 2016’s Because You Demanded It, the left-leaning, pro-EU comic’s heartfelt response to the referendum vote. The hiatus was deliberate: “I wanted to leave a bit of space between Trump being elected, the Brexit vote and 2017’s general election. Everything was moving too fast, things I’d write in the day already sounded out of date by the time I did them at gigs in the evening.

“I have found the news cycle exhausting. So the new show isn’t all about Trump or Brexit because I are fatigued with it now. Because You Demanded It was a very emotional response whereas What Now? is a bit more reflective: Okay so that’s happened, this is where we are now, what shall we do? It’s a much more light-hearted and personal show which is deliberate.”

So what is Bridget’s broad take on where we are? “I don’t think anyone – however they voted in the referendum or the general election – got what they wanted, and now it’s chaos,” she says. And the fact that the Tories are in crisis and yet Labour still aren’t ahead in the polls is hugely concerning. “But for me there is a funny side to it all on a purely personal level; people I’ve always disagreed with, I now find myself empathising with, thinking what a reasonable person they are.

“Michael Heseltine, a dyed in the wool Tory who shoots squirrels and strangled his mother’s dog when it bit him, was on Newsnight talking about the long term economic and social implications of Brexit and he was so impassioned and eloquent about the whole thing I started crying. I thought to myself, what the hell is happening? I think I need a break.”

“As a pro-EU feminist, it’s very discombobulating. I even found myself on the same side as the late Peter Stringfellow who said he was leaving the Tories because of their hard Brexit stance. He said he wanted to be remembered for being on the right side of history – although I think most people will remember him for the pornification of British culture.”

She goes on: “Writing comedy about serious subjects is like solving a puzzle. But it’s a privilege, too, to be able to talk about these things, to have a platform; you just have to remember that you don’t have to be right or to solve anything, you just need to make it funny. Knowing that frees you up.

“With What Now?, I wanted to write something fairly mainstream, light and fun that lots of different types of people might enjoy.

Notwithstanding What Now?’s lighthearted approach, Bridget’s fans have come to expect shows with political content. So would she ever write a show about, say, fluffy cats? “I think my audience might be a bit shocked – but I love cats, I’ve got three, so I wouldn’t rule it out.”

Bridget Christie

Oxford Playhouse

Friday June 29

oxfordplayhouse.com

01865 305305