DR Kevin Jones may be billed as “the funniest man in medicine” but when it actually comes to medicine he is very serious indeed.

And, as he goes to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with his show for the first time this month, arguably Bolton’s best known medical man is very honest about his second career. “I really enjoy comedy,” he said, “but I won’t be giving up medicine for it.”

The choice to become a doctor was not surprising when you learn that his father was a doctor and his mother a nurse. In fact, he’s married to a GP, Liz, and his siblings are nurses.

Kevin was born in Singapore 63 years ago after his father did his National Service there with the Royal Army Medical Corps. “He didn’t see any action, though – he spent the whole time drinking gin and enjoying himself,” recounted Kevin in typical droll style.

His pregnant mother went out to join him and Kevin spent the first couple of years of his life in Singapore before returning to England. The family made their home in Wales and then Chester where young Kevin went to St Anselm’s College on Merseyside. Here, he loved English but knew the better career choice for a doctor was the sciences so studied them at A level.

He took a medical degree at Liverpool University, kick-starting a love for the city that still holds today. He continued his medical training there, moving into respiratory and general medicine before taking up a post at the famous Papworth Hospital where he stayed for four years.

Here, he worked in the team carrying out pioneering heart and lung transplants – “really groundbreaking stuff and very inspiring,” he recalled. In fact, he became an expert himself in the use of drug Prostacyclin which dilates blood vessels. “One of the spin-offs was Viagra,” he explained with a wry smile.

He then worked at St Bartholomew’s and Whipps Cross hospitals in London before being offered a coveted Fulbright Scholarship in America where he continued his drug researches in Denver, Colorado.

When he returned to England, he took up a post at Bury General Hospital, staying for eight years before moving a few miles down the road to a job at the Royal Bolton Hospital in 1999. In 2006 he became an Acute Medicine Physician there and is now clinical lead.

It’s plain that Kevin still loves his job as a consultant, largely because “I love people and you see so many different and varied patients in acute medicine.”

The humour started early “I was the typical class clown at school, “he admitted. “Intelligent but keen for the attention,”

His father had been a successful after-dinner speaker and in 1986. Kevin made his first after-dinner speech. This developed into other sorts of appearances but, although the Edinburgh Fringe show is obviously very important to him, his feet are planted firmly on the ground.

“I think that being a doctor does keep me grounded,” he said. “I don’t tell jokes but more stories about things that have happened, or exaggerated versions of them.

“It’s easy for me. I’m a big physical presence (he’s 6’3”) and – like, sex, death and the law – people are always interested in health. I’m in a position where you hear things you would not learn anywhere else. But when I’m a doctor, that’s exactly what I am.

“Patients who know about the comedy sometimes say ‘don’t put anything about me in your act, will you?’ and I always tell them I definitely won’t. It wouldn’t be right.”

Kevin lives in Harwood with his wife and youngest son William. His eldest son is a teacher in Stockport. They are obviously a supportive family and want him to do well in Edinburgh.

“The Edinburgh Festival is something I always wanted to do”, he added, and he is very grateful for this chance. Ticket sales have been very positive for the week-long stint - ironically in a medical lecture theatre - with some sell-out nights and a full house on the others.

“Unlike the young comedians at the Fringe, though,” he stated. “I’m not looking for it to launch my career in comedy.”

His “day job” still gives him great satisfaction, he enjoys working in his team at Bolton – “I love the banter and everything that goes with being in a team” – and he is proud of what has been achieved at RBH over the years.

So could TV, for instance, ever appeal to him. “No, I don’t think so,” he stated, serious for a moment. “I’m a doctor and that’s what I will always be.”