Alfie Moore is a comic for those who believe the best education is the university of life.

He was an apprentice Sheffield steelworker and spent 18 years in the Lincolnshire and Humberside constabularies.

But, six years ago, he went to a comedy club for the first time in his life and everything changed.

“I went to this comedy club in Scunthorpe and I loved it. I thought I need to have a go. It was a bit odd for a bloke in his 40s, and it started as a hobby during a midlife crisis, but things moved on quickly and I was soon getting paid work.”

He had just passed his inspectors exams at work after two years studying. After a long and varied career taking in detective work, uniformed response and being a bobby on the beat, the bosses wanted to promote Moore from sergeant to inspector.

“I had to go home to my wife and say, ‘I could get promoted to inspector and get a good pension, just keep me head down for a few years, or I could go round in my mid-forties sleeping on settees and having a go at being a stand-up comedian’.

“My wife said, ‘go for it. Follow your dreams’.”

He took a punt. Three years on from making the finals of Show Me The Funny, which secured the comic a management deal and support slots with Russell Kane and Milton Jones, he has just been awarded a prime time Radio 4 comedy slot.

The first edition of It’s A Fair Cop – a live studio recording from BBC Radio Theatre - will air at 6.30pm on Tuesday, July 8.

“There has never been a cop who has done anything like it before,” he believes.

“It’s a moral dilemma type show. I set up real life scenario from a real life case I have dealt with then swear the audience in as cops.

“At various decision points I will ask them what they would have done: ‘Are you gonna chase him? Arrest him? Put the door in?’ “So it turns the table on the audience. I tell them what I did and do some stand-up around it.”

That he is not afraid to speak his mind - even in front of chief constables and other police officers - is a big part of his appeal.

And he’s full of praise for Radio 4, which sent its scouts to his Edinburgh show and asked him to pitch some ideas to them.

“It’s difficult for independent acts to get on to TV because it is all controlled by the big agencies.

“It’s fair to say you’ve much more chance if you’re skinny jeans, big hair, early twenties than if you have a middle-aged guy like me wandering on out of nowhere.

“There are exceptions, such as Sarah Millican, Micky Flannigan, John Bishop, but it is very difficult to get in.

“And Radio 4 took a chance on me after one tiny show.”

Moore never trained in writing or performance. In his early days, sharing bills with confident 19- year-old performing arts students, he stood nervously at the microphone.

“They owned the stage and wandered about like Russell Kane. I thought why can’t I be as confident in my movement as they swanned on, but they hadn’t got as much life experience and material as me.”

After one show, Rhod Gilbert told him to concentrate on police tales rather than stories about his past gambling and love problems.

“The police are perceived to be secretive. A lot of people are still sceptical about what goes on. Talk to people in London, nice middle class arty type people and they think their police are corrupt and racist. I don’t think we are open or honest enough.”

Despite being on a sabbatical (meaning Moore can return to the police at any point), he does not tow the corporate line: he criticises its target culture, its attempts to please everyone, its PC-gone-mad approach.

“I do not play it safe. I talk about edgy stuff. I’ll take the Mickey out of the organisation. I’m not towing corporate line.”

Alfie Moore is at Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Sunday, June 8 from 8pm.

Tickets are £12. Call 01273 647101.