ALFIE Moore blames a mid-life crisis for his unlikely transition from cop to comedian.

The former police officer worked for the Humberside force for more than 20 years where he climbed the ladder to detective.

But his life and career went in a completely different direction when he’d had a few beers and found he had signed himself up for a newcomer competition at a comedy club.

He said: “I was terrified, it felt much scarier than tackling knife-wielding maniacs. I ended up as one of the runners-up and discovered that I loved performing.”

That was in October 2007 and Alfie found that he had enjoyed it so much that he used all his holiday leave from the police to take a show to Edinburgh Fringe in 2008.

It went very well and he continued to somehow balance police work and stand-up until an opportunity on ITV’s Show Me the Funny led to him being signed by an agent.

Alfie took a career break to fling himself into comedy full time and now he even has his own BBC Radio 4 show called It’s A Fair Cop.

He added: “The BBC haven’t lost patience with me yet and I’m just writing series five which will air next spring.”

Alfie retired from the police last year but he still gets funny reactions to his former line-of-work from the comedy world.

For a start, some people thought it was just part of the act.

Alfie, who used to work in the CID office as well as the public protection team, said: “I’d walk off stage and people would often ask: ‘Are you really a policeman?’

“Now the brand of ‘comedy cop’ is established it’s hard for people to see me as anything else. On the odd occasion I’ve done a non-police set, people will ask: ‘Where were the police stories?’”

Some comics have even treated Alfie with a slight air of suspicion because of his background.

Alfie added: “I can remember being in the green room before a gig in the north west. The compere said he was going outside for ‘a smoke’ before the show and kindly offered me one of his ‘special’ roll ups – I politely declined.

“He did the compere bit at the top and then brought me on as the opening act and stood at the back of the room. When I told the audience I was a serving cop and started doing police material his face was a picture.”

After two decades at the frontline of policing, Alfie is not going to run short of material anytime soon and his other benefit is the ‘many parallels’ between comedy clubs and crime scenes.

Alfie said: “They can both be terrifying for different reasons. You are fully exposed as a stand-up – when that spotlight hits you and the audience go quiet it’s just you and them with nowhere to hide. Both roles involve making a connection with strangers. As a cop you’ll run into a highly pressurised situation and you have to deal with it – if you don’t make a connection with the people present then you’re in trouble. Stand-up is exactly the same.”

As for his material, Alfie is happy to live by the ‘stick to what you know’ mantra.

He added: “There are plenty of good quality stand-ups on the comedy club circuit. Many will be stuck there because despite their obvious talent they have no unique selling point, which means they’re not memorable.

“I work hard but I am very lucky that people are naturally fascinated by insights into the police. If I play a gig to a room full of strangers they are unlikely to remember my name but they will always remember ‘the funny copper’ – that’s my USP.”

Alfie Moore presents Fair Cop Unleashed at the Pyramid on Saturday. Visit pyramidparrhall.com