I feel like a pools' winner who's moved to the Cotswolds

AN INVETERATE collector, the comic Johnny Vegas has over the years picked up some quite extraordinary — some might even say bizarre — items. His home is stuffed to the gills with his own personal “EU antiques mountain”. It’s a veritable comedian’s curiosity shop.

- By James Rampton

A gigantic kitchen knife which is as tall as Johnny, anyone? “I don’t think it was ever used in the kitchen,” the comic smiles, “although Gordon Ramsay does have massive hands!”

How about a teapot adorned with Lionel Richie’s face and the caption: “Hello, is it tea you're looking for?” Or how does this grab you: a string of vintage cutout metal racehorses that used to be ridden around the dance floor by wives on a cruise ship? The comedian describes it as “like the Grand National meets Wife Swap”.

Johnny, who jokes that “there is a fine line between collecting and hoarding”, has accumulated so much stuff that he has no room left in his house in St Helens. So he now has to rent not one, but two lockups to store the rest of his items.

The comedian says his recent diagnosis of ADHD provides an explanation for his avid collecting habit. The apparently random assembly of stuff is, he insists, “a jigsaw puzzle of my life. Most people wouldn’t know how to put it together, but it makes complete sense in my head”.

Now help is finally at hand. The 54-year-old has decided to impose order on the chaos and turn his hobby into a business. He is opening a popup shop to sell some of the numerous items from his personal collection and because he is constantly on the lookout for new stuff for the store, he also tours local dealers searching for unusual bargains.

Based at Dagfields, a craft centre in Cheshire which houses 25 shops, Johnny’s antiques emporium is called "Vintage Vegas".

"I can call myself vintage because I’m over 50 and my body hair has gone grey," he observes wryly.