By Julian Shea

I copied other people all day. I always had a notebook nearby and I'd say things like 'I'm off to file a bit of copy'. Then I'd go and watch TV for half an hour. Miles Jupp

To paraphrase Dr Samuel Johnson, when a man is tired of Edinburgh, he is tired of life.

And in the Ashes summer of 2005, comedian and cricket devotee Miles Jupp was very tired of being in Edinburgh.

He was performing a show at the Festival Fringe - appropriately called Young Man in a Huff - but would much rather have been watching the epic battle between England and Australia.

"I really didn't enjoy Edinburgh that summer because I was so frustrated I couldn't spend more time watching the cricket," Perrier Award-nominee Jupp told BBC Sport.

"Afterwards, my wife said 'if you're going to get that grumpy about it, you should find a job which gives you the chance to watch more cricket'.

"I'm quite a poor player, so that ruled that out as an option. I decided the next best thing would be being a cricket correspondent."

Throwing himself in at the deep end, Jupp, who presents the BBC Radio 7 topical comedy show Newsjack, decided to try his luck as a cricket writer by following England's winter tour round India.

The story of his exploits forms the basis of the show he is performing at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe - Fibber in the Heat'

While most press boxes are full of trained, experienced journalists, the number of former players who go on to write about the sport makes cricket's press corps a particularly select bunch.

The stand-out features on Jupp's CV, however, were scoring a half-century at the age of 12 - "still one of the greatest days of my life" - and appearing in 74 episodes of children's television programme Balamory as Archie the inventor.

"I had a few contacts who had given me vague promises of work so my objectives were to get an article published and do a radio broadcast and to try to get some more work out of it - and to not be recognised as someone who had previously been on children's television," he said.

"I thought if I could get into that press box and look busy, I'd be in the best place to get some work.

Jupp appeared in Balamory

"If somebody got a stomach upset, someone might dash into the box and say 'we need a summariser' - I'd be sitting near the door and they'd say 'what's your name? You're on'."

Like any conscientious actor, Jupp decided the best way to get into his new role was to live it.

"I tried to dress like a cricket writer," he said. "I turned up at the airport with my laptop over my shoulder and wearing linen trousers, a short-sleeved shirt and a floppy sunhat. No-one else had a floppy hat so that was a poor piece of costume design on my part.

"Basically I copied other people all day. I always had a notebook nearby and I'd say things like 'I'm just off to file a bit of copy'. Then I'd go and watch TV for half an hour."

While some journalists may take a dim view of someone attempting to pass themselves off as one of their number, Jupp insists his imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.

"I have an enormous respect for their craft," he said.

"Jonathan Agnew has a lovely job on Test Match Special, which he does well and works incredibly hard at.

"And to be part of the Sky commentary team looks to be a blast, although it seems you have to have captained your country and played at least 96 Tests to get on there.

"I particularly love the work of Vic Marks. He's a great writer and also a great companion on the radio. He's the spirit of the old-style TMS."

For a while at least, Jupp escaped detection but dreams only last so long - and soon fibber began to feel the heat.

"I spent a lot of time trying to look busy," said Jupp. "The moment it becomes clear you've got nothing to do, it can get awkward.

"The real thing which went wrong was the work I thought I had lined up not happening.

"I was supposed to be writing about Simon Jones for a Welsh paper but he was injured before I'd even got off the plane.

"It also didn't help that some people became aware of what else was on my CV, which made it hard to be taken seriously, and there were problems with press passes.

"The moment at Chandigarh that I found out there was no press pass was pretty grim. Even though I'd been promised one, the official wouldn't tell me why I couldn't have it. He really bawled me out in front of all the other journalists and the players.

"He just kept shouting 'shut up, shut up' in my face. He seemed to do the more negative parts of his job with glee."

Jupp (right) has appeared in the BBC's award-winning satire The Thick of It

Jupp retired, ego hurt, but was determined to last the tour.

"I went a long way geographically to get not very far as a cricket writer but there was no way I was going to bail out," he said. "After all, I had paid for the trip.

"I lasted the tour and I wrote a blog, and I was vaguely associated with a paper at one point. I'd achieved one of my objectives."

With the cricket dream over, it was time to head back to the day job, appearing in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. More recently, he has turned up in BBC television comedies The Thick of It and Rev.

But Jupp's experience of living his cricket dream was worth all the travel and frustration - not least because he got this year's Edinburgh show out of it.

"The experience taught me not to pretend I'm something I'm not and just turn up and expect it to happen," he said.

"It changed the way I feel about the game and why it is that I love it. I was in a situation where I was out of my depth but just had to go along with it.

"I met some wonderful people but one of the main problems was the veil of impartiality journalists have to wear.

"Cricket is one of the few things that makes me animated - and you can't really do that in the press box."

Miles Jupp's Fibber in the Heat is on at the Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh from 5-28 August.

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