CONSPIRACY theories used to be fun, says Dom Joly. “Did we land on the moon, Bigfoot, was Paul McCartney cloned? Nowadays they’ve gone batsh*t insane,” he says. “They have infected the body politic, with the actual President of the United States supporting Q Anon and urging people to inject themselves with bleach. It’s dangerous, used by a series of grifters to terrify gullible people and fleece them for money. It makes me angry. But it’s also often very funny.”

Dom delves into this strange world in the Conspiracy Tour heading for King’s Hall, Ilkley, on October 22.

* What can we expect from the show? “I’ll take the audience through some of the wackiest conspiracy theories out there and what I think of them. I’m pretty much a sceptic so, for balance, I’ll be joined by eminent conspiracy theorist Dr Julian Northcote (author of the book COWS! Britain’s Secret Killers). Expect fireworks.”

* What sort of conspiracy theories have you looked at? “I took my wife to Finland for a holiday to prove that it exists. There is a theory that it doesn’t. I went on a massive road trip across America, popping into Denver International Airport, rumoured to be the assembly point for the Illuminati come the Rapture. I investigated UFOs with a visit to Roswell, New Mexico. I looked into the JFK assassination in Dallas, Texas. I chased Alex Jones, Info Wars grifter, around Austin Texas. I also took a flat earther to one of the four corners of the earth - an island called Fogo, off Newfoundland. It didn’t go well...”

* The show is a companion to your latest travel book, The Conspiracy Tourist. “It’s my fifth travel book. Over the last 15 years I’ve travelled to over 100 countries and written about some pretty strange stuff. I went on a coach trip around North Korea, an assassination vacation across America, ski-ing in Iran, monster hunting in the Congo, joining an illegal crossing of the US/Mexican border. I even spent a night in Swindon. I seem to be attracted to dark destinations.”

Dom Joly is fascinated by conspiracy theories Dom Joly is fascinated by conspiracy theories (Image: Image submitted)

* You grew up in Lebanon. Is this why you like this sort of travel? “Possibly. I grew up in the middle of a vicious civil war yet I had an unusual but wonderful childhood. Lebanon is an exciting, beautiful place and I always try to find the same in other places that maybe have a bad public image. My favourite fact about growing up in Lebanon was that I went to school with Osama Bin Laden for a year. I was six, he was 18 and so we weren’t friends. The weirdest part is that it was a Quaker school...Quakers being famous for pacifism.”

* You shot to fame on Trigger Happy TV- how did that happen? “I did my life the wrong way round. Most people do silly stuff when they’re young then knuckle down. I did the opposite. I was a diplomat in Prague and a producer for ITN in Parliament. Then I started making satirical comedy. Channel 4 spotted my stuff and asked me to make Trigger Happy TV. I’m immensely proud of it. I put blood sweat and tears into every episode and we sold it to 80 countries. It opened so many doors for me.”

* What were your favourite moments making it? “Often they were behind the scenes jokes. We worked next to the office where Tony Blackburn worked and we got his autograph every morning, at exactly the same time for seven months and he never noticed. Dressed as a traffic warden, I gave a fire engine a ticket while they were putting out a small fire, only to find that I’d lost my cameraman and nobody was filming. My favourite sketch was probably the large snail crossing the road because only in Britain would traffic stop and wait so patiently as I crawled across excruciatingly slowly.”

* What have been your career highlights so far? “Learning to fly a hot-air balloon. Making Dom Joly’s Happy Hour for SKY One in which I travelled the world getting drunk with my best friend. The lawyers got nervous and asked me not to say I was ‘getting drunk’ would I mind saying that I was ‘investigating cultural attitudes towards alcohol’ instead. Surviving for three weeks on The Island with Bear Grylls. I lost three stone and nearly my leg.”

* What do your family think about your life? “A strange mix of pride, confusion and disappointment. My wife, Stacey is often embarrassed by my behaviour. My daughter, Parker, just graduated from Oxford and is working at the University looking into a cure for Alzheimer’s. My son, Jackson, has exceptional music taste which I like to think I had a part in. We’re a very argumentative family. We once drove across the Canadian Rockies in a motorhome. If we’d recorded the trip, I’m convinced we’d have had the best reality show in history- except for Below Deck.”

* So what’s next? “I’m developing a Trigger Happy Movie and a TV series of The Conspiracy Tourist. I have a list of places I have yet to go to. Algeria is currently top. I’m obsessed with the place. My son and I want to go storm chasing in America. And I want to walk the Cotswold Way with my dogs.”