MANY things might come to mind when you think of Terry Waite.

Humanitarian campaigner, advocate for peace, special envoy – but probably not comedy writer.

But the former Lymm resident said being kept in captivity for 1,763 days after negotiating for the release of hostages in Lebanon not only strengthened his resolve but developed his imagination.

"When I was in captivity I had nothing," said Terry, whose sister Diana still lives in Lymm.

"I was in a room with no books or papers and had no one to speak to. I was chained to the wall for 23 hours and 50 minutes a day with one visit to the bathroom.

"So I just had to sit there with nothing for four and half years. In that time, one of the ways you can survive is by developing your imagination so I wrote my first book Taken On Trust entirely in my head.

"But then over the years I found that my creative imagination had been stimulated by that."

The unexpected result of that is The Voyage of the Golden Handshake, a humorous novel inspired by Terry's regular travels on cruise ships that could be turned into a sitcom.

Terry, a fan of Ed Reardon’s Week on Radio 4 and the Carry On films, added: "I’m constantly dealing with dark and difficult situations.

"I think it’s very important that if you are involved in those things you don’t lose the capacity to still have a sense of humour. It’s still important to laugh."

Terry spent three months writing the book on a break in Hawke's Bay in New Zealand and he has already written the sequel, The Return of the Golden Handshake.

The 76-year-old, who is also working on poetry book, said: "There’s been interest shown in making it into a sitcom so we’ll see what happens.

"I think it lends itself to being a sitcom because it’s a series of chapters with an incident in each one.

"It’s about a couple from the north who win the lottery and decide to take a cruise with a line that’s just started up and is a bit ramshackle.

"All sorts of things happen to them as they sail across the world and I’ve been to all the ports they call at so I’ve been able to incorporate my own knowledge into it.

"Everybody thinks I’m serious but I have a sense of humour. We see these terrible things on the news and people get very gloomy understandably.

"All the time we’re on about the economy or warfare but we shouldn’t allow all these things to take away from being able to laugh.

"A lot of the stuff today is so political or cynical but I enjoy things which are just totally ridiculous from time to time.

"I think the art of comedy is you take real situations and you lift them an inch above reality."

Terry, who grew up in Highfield Road, also revealed that he was offered a part on reality shows I’m A Celebrity and Strictly Come Dancing several years ago.

"I said not on your life," he added.

"I’m not out for publicity like that. A lot of people take that on because their careers have changed and they feel they want to be back in the public eye again but I’m not interested in that.

"I wouldn’t be any good at Strictly Come Dancing and it’s a very strict regime too.

"I’m not very strong on my feet either as I was chained up for years so I’m not really a dancer. I could dance when they hit my feet with cable but otherwise I’m not good."

- Terry Waite will be giving a talk at Statham Lodge Hotel and signing books on Monday for Lymm Festival. Visit lymmfestival.org.uk

DAVID MORGAN