Shappi Khorsandi has gone back in time

To be precise, to examine the life of Emma, Lady Hamilton, the mistress and misfit who lit up the life of Admiral Nelson.

She says: “This show has been the most fun to write. It’s about passion and tragedy. What better things are there to write comedy about?

“I relate Emma’s life to modern women and, like all stand ups, I draw people into the world as I see it so it’s still a very personal show.

“When you’re a stand-up, people have come to see you and share the experience with you. They can read a book about Emma, Lady Hamilton, but the way I tell her story draws people in to my stand-up, which I hope is why they bought a ticket in the first place.”

In Mistress and Misfit, Shappi recounts the largely untold story of England’s unsung heroine, Emma, Lady Hamilton. For too long, she has been tagged as Nelson’s mistress. She has been regarded as a bit of a harlot (you work in a brothel for one night and there goes your reputation).

Women’s lib wasn’t uppermost in people’s minds in Georgian times. Emma moved heaven and earth to drag herself from scullery maid to Lady Hamilton. So maybe she occasionally danced naked on tables to get a jump on her rivals, but who hasn’t done that?

As a fellow naked dancer on tables, Shappi is eager to celebrate the woman England betrayed.

“I was fascinated by Emma,” she explains. “She was really clever and compassionate and very hard done by. She was also a master of re-invention and a fantastically creative person.

“I initially tried to write a novel about Emma, but it was too hard, so I thought I’d do a show about it instead.”

As it turns out, according to Shappi, they have quite a few things in common.

“We were both artist’s models,” she continues. “She modelled for great artists, I modelled for GCSE students in Tower Hamlets. I have never worked in a brothel, but I have had moments that I would only tell you about on stage or when very drunk. I will be sharing some of those stories in Mistress and Misfit.”

The comedian also sees many parallels between the attitudes towards women then and now.

“Any woman who does anything seen as salacious is still demonised today,” Shappi says. “That’s a very modern theme. It’s not exclusive to Georgian times.

“In the show, I talk about Emma being married to a man 30 years older than her. If they were from a lower class, women had no financial independence and no options. That happened 200 years ago, but much more recently, my grandmother was married when she was 13 to a man in his 30s. So perhaps my gran was the Emma of her time.”

“The term ‘gold-digger’ is still banded about willy-nilly, when we don’t know anything about that woman. Women who are viewed as marrying above their station are still derided. There are massive parallels with today.”

In addition, the show reveals that the Establishment closed ranks against Emma after Nelson’s death.

She adds: “Just before the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson wrote an add-on to his will asking that Emma and his daughter be looked after in the event of his death: ‘that is the only favour I ask of my King and country as I go to fight their battle’. They didn’t.

“Emma ended her days derelict, penniless and alcoholic in Calais. There was no monument to her. We have not been told what a massive impact Emma had on Nelson’s life. Historians have wanted to make Trafalgar about Nelson and not about ‘this harlot’.”

Mistress and Misfit is also full to the brim with offbeat facts about Emma, which make for hilarious routines.

Shappi, who is also developing a new novel about adultery, says: “I did a lot of research to find quirky things that would work in stand-up.

“For instance, I discovered that there was something called the Harris List, which reviewed all the prostitutes in London. It was like a Trip Adviser of its time for prostitutes. At the time, one in six women in Covent Garden worked as a prostitute. So if you were visiting Covent Garden, you would take along your Harris List to see who tickled your fancy. Crazy.”

For all that, Shappi emphasises that the show is not meant to be a lecture.

“Mistress and Misfit is not a history lesson. It’s about now,” she assures.

“It’s not my intention to make anyone learn anything. It’s up to people if they want to take notes. But if they bring a notebook, that might put me off because I would think they were critics and pick on them.”

As well as an acclaimed stand-up, a novelist, and her various roles on television shows such as Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo, Shappi’s fame, like Emma’s rose stratospherically when she recently appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

She says: “It made you really look at life from a different angle. You are too hungry to think of anything apart from what to do with your life. You have time to figure that out. It made me think I really, really want to write that play and financially, it has meant that I can now afford to lose money putting on my play.”

Shappi Khorsandi: Mistress and Misfit is at the Colchester Arts Centre on April 27. Doors open at 8pm with tickets priced £15 and £13 for concessions, available from colchesterartscentre.com or by calling 01206 500900.