A SELF-confessed quiz geek and one of the funniest actors and comedians on TV, Hugh Dennis is surely the perfect choice to host a Hampshire pub quiz with a difference.

"I love a quiz," the Outnumbered star enthuses. "I just want to answer all the questions as well as ask them. I'm like a sponge for completely superficial and utterly useless information!”

In demand for filming for three of television's biggest comedy hits this autumn, the funnyman, who shot to fame as one half of comedy duo Punt and Dennis, is making time to return as compere for The Haven’t A Foggiest Celebrity Quiz at Winchester Guildhall, a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Haven at Titchfield.

The September 28 event will see Hugh continue his support of the charity, which helped a colleague's wife when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It's his second quiz night in Hampshire, an area he knows well after his parents retired to Winchester and his children attended Portsmouth Grammar School.

It will come during filming for the latest series of Mock the Week.

“I’m hoping the quiz won’t be quite as high pressured,” he jokes.

After years in the hot-seat, he's used to the demands of the quick-thinking show, which combines the best elements of panel show, stand-up and improvisation with two teams of comedians taking a satirical swipe at current affairs and world events.

The self-deprecating star explains: “It’s what you’re used to, isn’t it? You’ve got to remember that with Mock the Week, they broadcast 28 minutes of material and record three hours. You don’t see any of the time when we’re flailing around or saying something we think is brilliant, which turns out not to be funny at all. It’s sort of a greatest hits or edited highlights.

“I don’t count it as proper improv. I went to see Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which is back on in the West End, and it was just tremendous. I wouldn’t be able to do that at all. Mock the Week is just like standing around chatting with your mates. I’m not even sure whether it’s a skill or if it’s just showing off. It comes very naturally anyway.”

The 54-year-old, who also works as a writer, impressionist and voice-over artist, is half way through filming a new series of Not Going Out, the BBC series which made a household name of Lee Mack, has been going down a storm in new cult sitcom Fleabag and is returning to an old favourite in time for Christmas.

Outnumbered, which charts the trials and tribulations of the Brockman family, particularly their three wayward offspring, returns for a one-off festive special in 2016.

“I look back on it very fondly, but I won't have to much longer as we're filming the Christmas special in November. I haven't seen any of my pretend children for about a year and I'm expecting them all to be massive and unrecognisable!

"When the series started you could sort of just about accept them as a family, but as the series goes on the kids don't look anything like their parents or each other. Dan - who plays Ben - particularly is huge! He has muscles and plays rugby! He's a big man. But that's part of the appeal of it I suppose, it's all good fun.

The father of two believes the secret of the show's mass success was parents recognising the rollercoaster of life with children growing up.

"That was the key to its success. Everybody who had children recognised their own experiences, whether embarrassing, weird or bizarre.

"My oldest is a year younger than Jake and my youngest a year or so younger than the other two. It gave me an idea of what might happen next year. It was quite useful at times!"

And, he jokes, it has given him the key to eternal life.

"Outnumbered seems to be on TV all the time and Mock the Week is virtually on repeat on Dave. People think I'm much younger than I actually am when they're watching an episode from 2006!"

Now his own children have reached their late teens, it might be time to fly across the pond.

"I love American sit coms and I'd happily have been in most of them. But I'd love to do something like The West Wing, which is kind of funny but it's not really meant to be. Or maybe something like House of Cards, I'd love to play someone evil for a bit!

"I've never been out to the States, I have a family and it's been a bit tricky. But now they are all grown up, I could go for plastic surgery, make myself look 25 and see what happens."

I think he's joking. We wouldn't want to lose a national comedy treasure to anything too serious or strange stateside.

Tickets for the Haven't A Foggiest Celebrity Quiz, which takes place in Winchester Guildhall on Wednesday September 28, are available for £400 for a table of ten, including a welcome bottle of fizz and a food platter.

Visit thehaven.org.uk, email juliet.hasson@breastcancerhaven.org.uk or call 01329 559290.