Comedian Jason Manford might not resemble Steve Martin or John Candy but he had his own Trains, Planes And Automobiles adventures on Tuesday – albeit without a plane – attempting to cross the country to get from Stockport to a gig at Margate's Winter Gardens. A journey of around 280 miles that should have taken not much more than four hours took more than twice as long in sweltering temperatures.

 

He shared the details on social media...

 

"Quite the journey! Got the 11.44 from stockport to London due to arrive in Margate at 16.38. Little dip in the sea and a lovely gig, that’s all I wanted!

Train aircon stopped working. Stopped at Rugby to fix it.

Tree fell on track ahead-30m delay.

Said tree caught on fire. 1 hour delay.

Train cancelled.

Rugby station, couldn’t get a cab, couldn’t hire a car!

Arranged with 5 fellow passengers to share cab to London for £70 each. By time we got to car it was £90 each

A lady started crying cos she was gonna miss her flights home! Gave her my space in the taxi (livid, we can all cry love! If only I could muster a tear for Margate!).

Managed to get taxi over to Northampton (he wouldn’t drive further ).

Got a local Prius to drive the 2hrs 45m to Margate- he won’t put the aircon on (even tho it’s costing £210!). Said ‘we can either get to Margate or have aircon-car doesn’t have power for both!”.

Will arrive at 7.25 for a 7.30 show-delightful!

You better laugh ya bastards!"

 

Luckily the gig was worth the effort. Afterwards he posted another message. "Gig was a smasher, well worth the journey. So glad I got to play the show before the venue closes for good."

 

And on Wednesday morning he posted a screenshot of the current train timetable showing this morning's cancelled trains from Margate. "Here we go again kids! Strap yourselves in"