COMEDY legend Elaine C Smith has hailed Greenock as one of her favourite places to perform as she gets set to take to the stage in front of a sell-out crowd.

The stage and TV star will entertain a full house at the Beacon Arts Centre on Saturday March 17 with her new stand-up show, ‘Burdz Eye View’.

It follows Elaine’s STV travel series and local fans are being treated to an exclusive preview before it heads to the King’s Theatre as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

Elaine told Showbuzz: “I’ve been going to Greenock for 30 years now and even a few years ago when it was the old Arts Guild they were always gigs you looked forward to because they were always great audiences, really warm.

“Although the old theatre was falling apart, I opened ‘The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband’ there and something else and it was always our ‘off Broadway’ gig if you like.

“Shows on Broadway open ‘off Broadway’ just down the road or in smaller theatres and it’s a great way to get a show in shape as well.”

Famed for her role as ‘Mary Doll’ in iconic Scottish sitcom Rab C Nesbitt, Elaine has been a mainstay on TV, radio and stage for more than three decades and is regarded as a national treasure.

She arrives in town fresh from starring in the third series of the BBC hit comedy Two Doors Down and the latest instalment of Burdz Eye View and is raring to go.

Elaine said: “It’s my stand-up, a two-hour one-woman show of stories, songs and laughs and all that.

“It’s the name of the show I’ve been taking all around the country for the telly series ‘Burdz Eye View’ and loads of people have been getting in touch saying ‘why can’t we see more of your shows, the actual live shows’ and I thought ‘maybe I’ll do it, you know’.

“I did a show in Greenock three or four years ago not long after the Beacon had opened.

“I came down one night when I was doing my first series of Burdz Eye View and it was more of ‘an evening with’ then whereas now it’s more my stand-up, songs, poking fun and quite a tight show of observations of the world — the world according to Smith.

“There’s great folk in Greenock and it’s produced some of the best writers ever, people like Peter McDougall, who is an old pal, and I love his stuff.

“It’s always been somewhere that’s absolutely rich with talent, creativity and the Beacon is such a great theatre and to have come out of the ashes almost of the Arts Guild right on the waterfront.

“Within showbusiness people say the Beacon’s great, actors love going there and they love the audiences, which is the most important thing.”