Comic lands newspaper column

Stand-up John Warburton has been given his own weekly column in the Sunday Sport.

Warburton, who recently won the City Life North West comedian of the Year award, has ghost-written the column by former Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder column for the Friday edition of the Daily Sport for the last four years.

And he says he's grateful to be able to put his own face to his words at long last.

The 33-year-old said: "I've done gigs in the past and had people come up to me afterwards accusing me of nicking stuff from Shaun's column. There's not a lot you can say to that really."

"My new column is titled The Happy Eater and the idea is that it takes all the bad news of the week and twists it around so it's actually good news. I'm always looking for the silver lining to that cloud."

Warburton's time on the Shaun Ryder column led to him touring with the band in 1999 and writing the acclaimed book Hallelujah.

He is also part of the sketch troupe The Unbroadcastable Radio Show, which is being developed as a pilot for Radio Four in collaboration with the BBC comedy unit in Manchester.

Published: 30 Nov 2004