Transvestite comedian Eddie Izzard is planning to perform his latest offering of surreal humour during a return visit to his former school.

The colourful performer and Eastbourne College old boy told an American paper that he hoped to talk to teachers about filming his one-man show Sexie there.

He told the Los Angeles Times: "I'm going to record it in the very same theatre where, as a pupil, I sat watching The Sound Of Music thinking, 'Why can't I be in this play?'

"A few years ago, I went back wearing a skirt and make-up and they were okay with it because I'd reached a certain level of profile in the UK, so I was a famous twit coming back.

"I wasn't the sad transvestite, I was the successful transvestite, which is where, I think, you've got to be."

But college bosses are puzzled.

A spokeswoman said: "I can say with some certainty that Eddie Izzard has not been to the school recently. We last saw him when he came down for speech day a couple of years ago.

"He is indeed an old boy of the college's and always a very welcome guest. We would love to hear more about his new show but no plans have as yet been made to record it here."

The show will be filmed over three nights at the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne.

Eddie's father grew up in nearby Bexhill, where his mother worked in a biscuit factory and his father drove buses.

The comedian and his brother began their education at boarding school St Bede's, Dukes Drive, at the foot of the South Downs in Eastbourne.

On his web site, Eddie, 41, said: "I have a big love of the South Downs now. They're kind of bonkers. On the north side they don't have any cliffs, they just slope off like a big-steep-forward-roll-possible-all-the-way-down type of hill."

He started at Eastbourne College when he was 13.

With his own brand of "carefully crafted rubbish" he became an instant hit after his first stage show in the West End in 1993 and has picked up a collection of comedy awards throughout his career, including two Emmys.

Eddie has also performed in acclaimed serious drama.

Sexie is at the Congress Theatre from November 10 to 12.