Sean Lock tells Viv Hardwick he doesn’t want his children to know about his stand-up comedy as he prepares to top the bill at Hartlepool’s Dockfest.

STAND-UP star Sean Lock hopes to be retired by the time his three children are old enough to ask what he does for a living. “My children are five, three and four months. They don’t really understand what I do and I like to keep it quiet. I like the fact that my dad was totally normal and I’m not sure about this ‘dad on the TV’ thing. I’m actually a miserable, authoritarian guy at home… no really, I’m strict,” he says as I burst out laughing.

Asked about being the biggest name on the bill for Hartlepool’s Dockfest comedy night tomorrow, the star of Channel 4’s 8 Out Of 10 Cats, says: “Being the headliner is only more pressure if you’re not very good. I reckon they’ll be in a good mood in Hartlepool. I remember going to a gig there in the mid-Nineties and I did an act with Bill Bailey and we seemed to drive and drive and got stuck on the A1. We arrived just before the gig started and there were about 30 people in. But we had a good night because the crowd appreciated us getting there.”

Lock is booked for a half-an-hour slot and reckons he’ll be available, if asked, for next year’s Tall Ships Race entertainment nights at the Marina in August, when he’s already planning a UK tour.

Is there a difference between North-East humour and the rest of the country? “I think the Geordies like to think there is and they also feel it’s different if you play Liverpool. But, no, it isn’t. I prefer audiences away from London because they’re more appreciative.

I suppose I should say they’re all unique,” says Lock who is delighted to discover that most of the 850 free tickets have been snapped up for his appearance with Ivan Brackenbury, Jason Cook and Lee Nelson. He reveals that the climate has changed regarding swearing on TV following Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand’s broadcasting antics. “Particularly the BBC, but all channels have clamped down.

We don’t get warned. They just edit it out. It’s not just language, sometimes it’s content or an image that’s too graphic.

“I’ve never sworn on 8 Out Of Ten Cats so I’m quite glad. Billy Connolly is probably the greatest stand-up this country has ever produced and he swears all the time. Some people use it because they haven’t got any jokes,” Lock says. According to on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia he’s supposed to have appeared on TV with Uri Geller in the Seventies to look at spoon-bending. “It also says I have three daughters which is also nonsense. I definitely didn’t meet Uri Geller. If I had done he’d still have a spoon sticking out of his nose,” he says.

The 46-year-old fell into stand-up in the late Eighties when his work as a builder started to dry up. “I started in October 1988 and it was about ten gigs a year initially.

Every day I sit down for at least three or four hours and try and write something. Some of it on 8 Out Of Ten Cats is ad-libbibg, but you have to have something to start with. Jimmy (Carr) doesn’t give you much. He just asks the questions and stares at us,” he says.

■ Big Mouth, Dockfest, Hartlepool Marina, tomorrow. Final tickets released at 3pm at Hartlepool Maritime Experience for a 7.30pm show