TERRY Waite CBE is arguably Britain's bravest man having endured 1,763 days (almost five years) as a hostage in the Lebanon. His ordeal ended in November 1991 with the words "Dr Runcie I presume?" as he met his ex-boss the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Robert Runcie, at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.

The nation was glued to TV sets as the 6ft 7ins last British hostage out of Beirut delivered an amazing, and lengthy, attack on "vile" hostage takers.

Now it is time to see the funny side of life and on Sunday, the 60-year-old brings a lecture tour to Darlington's Civic Theatre which accompanies his third book - Travels With A Primate - marking the period he was employed as the Archbishop of Canterbury's Advisor.

Waite can hardly hold back the laughter as he explains how Lord Runcie fully approved of the book and supplied a foreword for it, just before he died in July this year.

Waite says: "He always said that 'Anyone without a sense of humour cannot hold a position of responsibility' and added the words that 'Thomas Cook should be a secular saint because he took travels from the privileged and gave it to the people'."

The Archbishop of Canterbury certainly needed the British stiff upper lip during a trip to Nigeria where the large number of people forced the visitors to take shelter near a stall selling balloons to mark the occasion with a sign reading "Support Anglicans... and blow up the Archbishop of Canterbury".

"The Pope had paid a visit just before and other vendors were using the occasion to sell off merchandise left over from that occasion. We were particularly amused by baseball caps which were misprinted 'Welcome Holy Father'," says Waite who is glad that the Chinese didn't get involved in the printing of his book. A copy returned from the Far East as a special gift for Lord Runcie who had again supplied words of introduction. Sadly the header ran: "Foreword by Archie the Bishop of Canterbury."

It seems almost out of character to hear Waite giggling about his adventures having been forced to survive many hours in solitary isolation after suffering the fate of people he was trying to help in January, 1987.

This dark moment followed surviving the Amin coup in Uganda in the early 1970s when serving as provincial training adviser for the Anglican Church. He then travelled the world as health and education advisor to a Roman Catholic Medical Order before joining the Archbishop of Canterbury's team in 1980. Waite shot to public attention by negotiating the release of hostages from Colonel Gadaffi's clutches in 1983.

"Part of the reason I survived the ordeal of being a captive was that I could always imagine there were people worse off then myself," he says.

The Lebanon experience put Waite in demand as a lecturer, writer and broadcaster but he spends an enormous amount of time and money supporting a long list of charities. Topping the list includes being president of Y-Care, the international wing of the British YMCA, and president of Emmaus UK, offering hope for the homeless.

"My time as a student in Middlesbrough (at 10 Wellington Street) showed me the plight of the men living rough because they couldn't find work. The idea of Emmaus UK is to set up self-supporting projects near every large urban area in Britain (there are more than 20 so far) to give the homeless back some dignity," he explains.

Asked for his funnier North-East moments he reflects on Lord Runcie being teased about his "hard up North" stories when it was revealed that his period as a curate in Newcastle was served in the leafy area of Gosforth.

"I also got on well with Bishop Alec Graham, the Bishop of Newcastle. I once went in his kitchen and saw a poster which said: 'Be as smart as Alec. Eat More Fish'," Waite says... and laughs.

l An Evening With Terry Waite CBE, takes place at Darlington Civic Theatre tomorrow at 7.30pm. Tickets £10. Box Office: (01325) 486555.

l Travels With A Primate is published by Harper Collins and is on sale now, price £17.99