QI presenter and former Bake Off host Sandi Toksvig returns to the live stage with her brand new show, Next Slide Please.

The comedian and broadcaster will be stopping off at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford to spread cheer after many months of doom and gloom.

“I want that sense of joy when we hear people laughing, meeting strangers, having a drink and just being glad to be out for the evening,” says the 63-year-old presenter. “[Next Slide Please] is about having fun, being silly, doing jokes and enjoying ourselves.”

The television star struggled with lockdown, particularly being separated from her three children and two grandchildren, and is hoping her new tour can restore feelings of warmth and joy for herself and the audience.

“That first lockdown Christmas without them was really hard,” she admits. “Much though I adore my wife, I missed the noise and raucous laughter of Christmas.”

Sandi and her wife Debbie, who have been married since 2014 and in a civil partnership several years before that, currently live in London, but also have a second home here in Kent.

The home, which Sandi has shared glimpses of on social media, is in Herne Bay.

Last year, Sandi also made a trip down to the Kent coast for work with Folkestone-born actress Jessica Hynes. The two of them stayed at the Kings Hill farmhouse in Sheppey for an episode of Channel 4’s Extraordinary Escapes.

Alongside her live show, which is the first since 2019’s sell-out tour National Trevor, Sandi has also been busy on screen. She is currently the host of not only Extraordinary Escapes, but also the Great Big Tiny Design Challenge, in which the self-confessed miniature collector sees contestants compete in small-scale design challenges, and quizzical panel show QI.

However, the presenter and women’s rights activist shows no signs of slowing down.

“Next Slide Please will be full of new discoveries, new adventures, new ideas,” says Sandi.

“Otherwise you become a dinosaur.”

Next Slide Please is at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford on Sunday, May 8 from 7.30pm.

Book online here.