Alistair McGowan (plus Ronni Ancona) or Rory Bremner (plus John Bird and John Fortune)? Mirror, mirror on the wall, which one impresses most of all?

Orto answer the question with another question, like a politician, why does the UK produce so many highly talented comic impersonators as opposed to, say Denmark or the United States?

"America has some. I was India and they have an impressionist there. I think it's part of a healthy democracy. I don't imagine there are many Saddam Hussein impressionists. I don't suppose they had the Les Dennis Longevity Award for impressionists, " Rory Bremner said.

"Peter Hennesey, our shrewdest political commentator, said Britain is the 'come off it' society. We have a deepseated sense of it in our culture.

We're not revolutionary because we are too busy laughing. I try to combine the fun element and plug that into some kind of understanding of what's going on.

"But reality always trumps me. I mean look, David Frost is appearing on al-Jazeera. Six months ago that was a sketch. The world is beyond parody."

The name of the game has changed significantly since Mike Yarwood and Janet Brown imitated the voices and mannerisms of, among others, Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher.

Steve Nallon went considerably farther by dressing up as Margaret Thatcher. His impersonation bordered on caricature, but he set the pace for the likes of Alistair McGowan, Ronni Ancona and Rory Bremner.

Aided by that flubbery substance that looks like plastic surgery, they are able to transform their physical appearances. Alistair McGowan looks, and sometimes sounds, more like Sven Goran Eriksson than the England manager does himself. Rory Bremner has turned in some memorable sketches as John Major and since 1997 Tony Blair - the Vicar of Albion.

Has he adapted his TV shows with Bird and Fortune for the 11-date tour that starts in Manchester on November 17?

"It could go in any direction the audience wants, at least in the second half. I enjoy the challenge. It makes me think on my feet. Someone might ask me a question about William Hague. He might not be in my repertoire but it will allow me to tell stories about trying to get on his election battle bus and being kicked off.

"I'm trying to edge my way back into stand-up, engaging with the audience. If the book sales (You Are Here, out in paperback since July) are anything to go by people are fascinated by this kind of stuff. Bird and Fortune are my mullahs. They have radicalised me, " he said, referring to his comic assault on Blair and Bush and the conduct of the war against terror in Iraq.

Does Rory Bremner want to be thought of as a political commentator or as an entertainer, then?

Definitely not. He told a previous interviewer: "I am not remotely interested in becoming a commentator. The difference is that I want to do a show that makes people laugh."

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce why 44-year-old Bremner - a foreign languages graduate who learned his craft as a stand-up comedian on the London cabaret circuit and at the Edinburgh Festival - has not been on the road for five years.

A new wife, the artist Tessa Cambell Fraser, and two young daughters, Ava and Lila, have necessarily occupied his time and attention, although not quite all of it.

"Yes, if Saddam Hussein had had a wife and two kids five years ago none of this (the war, the insurgency) would have happened. In the last two years we have done four Bird and Fortune shows, the book, literary festivals, plus children, plus after-dinner things.

"One thing I have neglected is getting back to the audience. It scares you but I want that, wanted to change the tone, not just have something gladiatorial. For family and work reasons I just haven't been able to get out."

His mental library of impersonations he reckons to consist of about 100 with 40 to 50 available to him at any one time. Does he have to practise every day, running through his voices like a scale?

"No, I don't practise enough, " he added.

From a self-interested point of view, which of the two candidates for the leadership of the Tory Party would he prefer to win: David Davis or David Cameron?

"David Cameron, I suppose. My take on him is that he's an iPod. He's a blank canvas with a shiny surface.

Anybody in the Tory Party can download policies on to him that they want."

Rory Bremner 'Uncorked' will be appearing at St George's Hall on Monday, November 28, star ting at 8pm. Contact (01274) 432000.