"I’m really delighted to have an alter ego. Everyone should have one. They should be given out on the NHS!”

This weekend sees Sue MacLaine return to the stage in the guise of vaudevillian pensioner Sid Lester.

Aided and abetted by his ambitious daughter Valerie, Lester will introduce a packed line-up of Brighton talent and underline the reality of what Christmas means for most people – a close encounter with the family.

“Christmas is spending time with people who have the capacity to drive you mad,” says MacLaine, who first introduced Lester to city audiences as part of the 2010 Brighton Festival.

“Sid knows exactly how to push Valerie’s buttons, how to upset her and annoy her – and vice versa to a certain extent.”

Taking the role of Valerie is Emma Kilbey, who MacLaine says has a beautiful singing voice and an ability to improvise and respond in the moment.

“Valerie was originally a character that Sid talked about in his show,” says MacLaine. “She somehow forced herself off the page.

“It’s been fantastic from the perspective of a creator and writer.”

Lester came from a variety of sources.

“I remember watching Norman Wisdom being interviewed in his 70s,” says MacLaine. “He had worked since he was 13. When I saw him, he wouldn’t stop being Norman Wisdom.

“He kept on and on, still telling jokes and wanting to do the pratfalls. I was half moved by that and half really annoyed. I wanted him to be real and stop performing, but he couldn’t.

“There was something really moving about that determination. When you watch Bruce Forsyth there’s a similar sense that if he stopped performing then his life would be over, so why not keep going? They were both an influence, if not an inspiration.

“I read an article about a night school which ran cookery classes for men who were widowers and didn’t know how to cook – it was about to close down through lack of funding. The interviews were with men who said it had been a lifeline.

“I started to think about old men who were widowers and where it left you, and Sid pretty much arrived fully formed. I’m both delighted and slightly disturbed by that. I discover new things about him all the time.”

MacLaine will be doing plenty of improvising during the show, which sees Lester host an ensemble of Brighton-based performers, including dancers Helen Rogers and Janine Fletcher, song and dance with Liz Aggiss, piano from Greg Mickelborough and the voice of Milly Roberts.

“It’s where he’s most happy,” says MacLaine. “He’s conductor of his own chorus, getting lots of acts in and compering but also doing his own stuff. He’s rarely out of the picture even though there are a lot of other people involved.

“I really like surprising audiences. Everyone in the show is of a high calibre in terms of what they are able to deliver. It’s wonderful to do a home gig with performers who live and work in Brighton.

“It’s not a fixed piece in the way you would perform a Shakespeare play – there’s a sense of let’s see where we go with the audience. It’s quite exciting – there’s a certain amount of adrenalin!"