Countdown star Richard Whiteley is achieving cult status at the famous Edinburgh Festival. Jim Greenhalf managed to catch up with him between shows to find out how he was enjoying his new found fame.

The unlikeliest hit of the Edinburgh Festival is Richard Whiteley's unscripted Teatime Chat, on which a variety of famous and not-so-famous guests drink tea, eat cakes, and joke about Countdown.

The 60-minute afternoon show, with full houses of 350 paying £6 to £7 a head, has only been on for just over a week (it ends on Saturday).

But in that time, Bradford-born Whiteley's overnight leap to cult status has been the subject of at least 13 media profiles, plus guest appearances on Stephen Frost's Fringe show Pub Quiz, and Mark Lamarr's BBC2 Festival round-up Edinburgh Nights.

It's not as though the former Calendar presenter and host of TV's longest-running quiz, Countdown, was an unknown. He's been a slightly larger-than-life figure on YTV since 1968 and a regular on Channel 4 since 1982.

So how does he account for the success of his first show at Edinburgh?

"It gives old pros like Rory Bremner and others a chance to show off other aspects of themselves that they can't do in their shows here," he said.

"They are all relaxed, they all want to talk about Countdown because they have Countdown gags in their acts.

"For the more confident ones, the object of the exercise is to take the mickey out of Whiteley.

"All the Fringe-goers are up for it; they want to come to the show and enjoy themselves."

"Here I am, 54 years old... I can't wait for Nicholas Parsons to come on the show on Wednesday because I'll have a soul-mate. Apart from him I'm probably the oldest person on the Fringe," he said, and laughed.

He says he regards the experience as a holiday, but it could be the holiday of his career.

The Edinburgh show, the idea for which he attributes to his recently-acquired agent Vivienne Clore, proves that he has the same appeal for university audiences as Norman Wisdom and the late Frankie Howerd.

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