How Myra Dubois was inspired by South Yorkshire upbringing of Gareth Joyner

And the amdrams play? “Ah yes. Wind in the Willows, a stage version of the Kenneth Grahame classic. It was put on by a local group called Third Nail Theatre, and I’m very happy to say that they are still going strong...One of the teachers at school had told us all that they were going to put on a seasonal show, and that all the creatures in the plot – the stoats, the weasels and so on, were going to be played by youngsters. He implored us to go along and audition. So I did.

"I can’t remember what I said – or sang – but I do remember getting told that I’d been cast. Looking back, I can only think that they must have been more desperate than I ever thought, because I found myself Basher Stoat, one of the guardians of Toad Hall, and put on sentry duty to defy Toad and his attempt to reclaim his rightful property.

“My weapon of defence was a great big vegetable marrow. I still haven’t a clue why. I only had one line to say, and that was ‘Oh, sergeant!’, but I delivered it in the style of Kenneth Williams, with a bit of Charles Hawtrey. And, miraculously, with the long drawl, I got the laughs. That, of course, was a great thrill, and possibly the catalyst for what came after.”

Gareth, 36, was inspired to turn to performance full-time, and is now firmly established on the comedy circuit as Myra Dubois, the acclaimed attraction of cabaret venues all around the UK (and Australia), an annual must-see at the Edinburgh Festival, and one of the stars of the movie Everyone’s Talking about Jamie.

Gareth now lives in Salford, with their companion, a one-eyed whippet called Vera but what made Myra was very much growing up in South Yorkshire. “I didn’t have a dad around”, they say, “and my late mum, Denise, and I lived in a council property – she worked on the tills at Marks and Spencer, and she provided for us both. I’m an only child, so it was a pretty solitary existence. Please don’t think that I was lonely, I definitely wasn’t.

"But I developed a very creative imagination, and I used to dress up a lot – I made very good use of my mum’s beautiful fur coat, which was stored under the bed. She’d been given it by my grandparents for her 18th birthday, and I think that I wore it more than she ever did. I’d do things like getting my grandad’s old tweed coat, slipping into it, and by putting pegs at the ends of the sleeves, I’d become a scarecrow. Or wear his trilby, and I was immediately a sleuth….I was Batman as well. You name it, I could imagine myself into it, and I was very happy.”

At school (and with learning problems like dyslexia) it was a different matter. “Back then, it was still ‘teaching by rote’, with no room for any creativity. I vividly remember a lesson where we were told that we would be writing to pen friends, from another school, and we got the messages down, and we were told to seal them in an envelope, which is what I did. But then I drew a little ‘picture frame’ around the stamp, and I drew a little seal on the flap at the back. It just made the envelope a little bit more different, more personalised. But the teacher didn’t see it that way – and she gave me a right good talking to, with the inevitable ‘Gareth, why can’t you just do as you are told?’”

Gareth’s escape came in their mid-teens, and to Rotherham Arts and Technology College. From there, with the death of their beloved mum, Gareth gained a place at the prestigious St. Martin’s School of Art and Design, in central London. But, while still in Yorkshire, they had found a part-time job, in a local club, as a glass collector. Gareth was efficient at the job, but was paying a lot of attention to the various acts who appeared on stage.

In London, Gareth had a friend who was brilliant at off the cuff improvisation. The two would imagine a scenario, and they’d develop their themes. “He played a character called Rose, and I was called Myra. Miss Dubois was born. And then I spotted an ad for an open mic night at the (then) legendary Madame Jo-Jo’s club in Soho. Plucking up all my courage, I went along and tried my luck.” They laugh: “Now this is where I tell you that I died a death, and had to slink away, mortified. But, unbelievably, the audience seemed to love me, and I found out both what I wanted to do, and where I wanted to be. I found the thing I was good at was, well, communication.”

Breaking into TV, Myra’s made appearances on Britain’s got Talent, and Big Brother’s Bit on the Side, but after the current tour, she’ll be popping up at the Manchester Opera House (opposite Jason Manford) in their big budget pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk (she’s Mrs Blunderbore, the giant’s wife) and there is much else in the pipeline.

It’s Gareth who offers a word of caution to other youngsters who feel that they have performance in their blood. “When I look back, I realise that whatever I was good at, the teachers in Rotherham tried to stamp it out of me. Well, wherever you are, never let them do that. Never. Ever. Just be you.” Looking over Gareth’s shoulder, Myra nods vigorously in agreement.

Myra Dubois: the Be Well Tour, King’s Hall, Ilkley, October 4.