Fresh from being ravaged by hunger and sand-flies on Channel 4's Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls, comedian Shazia Mirza returns with a show about lies and truth - or are they the same thing these days?

Norwich Evening News: Comedian and writer Shazia Mirza is bringing her show to Norwich. Photo: Amelia TroubridgeComedian and writer Shazia Mirza is bringing her show to Norwich. Photo: Amelia Troubridge (Image: Archant)

'The reason it's called With Love From San Tropez is I've got some material about how I was on a normal French beach last summer and then it turned into a nudist beach,' laughs comedian and writer Shazia Mirza about her latest show which she is set to bring to Norwich.

'It all seemed very normal and then a few days later in France they banned the burka. So it's alright for women to be stark raving naked but it wasn't alright for women to cover up on a beach which I thought was very strange,' she adds.

'It's about censorship...there is a lot of censorship now; Trump censors journalists, bans people from coming into America, bans the burka. I don't think there's as much freedom of speech or freedom that we fought so hard for anywhere.'

The stand-up comedian from Birmingham has become a familiar face on TV and is regularly heard on radio, popping up on everything from Have I Got News For You to a regular slot on Radio 2's Vanessa Feltz Show and Radio 4's The Now Show.

The flight of three Muslim schoolgirls to join Isis gave her the subject of her last critically acclaimed show The Kardashians Made Me Do It. Now she is bringing her follow-up With Love From San Tropez to The Garage in Norwich on June 8.

Shazia, who had never been on a nudist beach before and hadn't planned on being on one this time either, says she found it very surprising.

Norwich Evening News: Comedian and writer Shazia Mirza is bringing her show to Norwich. Photo: Amelia TroubridgeComedian and writer Shazia Mirza is bringing her show to Norwich. Photo: Amelia Troubridge (Image: Archant)

Her fellow British holidaymakers maintained their reserve. 'There's a lot of naked people about and there's a lot of British trying to look at the naked people from the corner of their eye while reading the paper. They don't want other people to see they were looking. They were also the most covered-up. They all had a cardigan in their bags just in case. Even if they're on a hot French beach they're prepared for the rain.'

St Tropez was more relaxing than her appearance last year on Channel 4's Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls, on which she was dashed against rocks by the sea while trying to shelter from a torrential storm.

'It was 10 times worse than what it looked. You see an edited version which is made palatable for viewers, they can't show how awful how it is because I think there'd be too many complaints from the public and nobody would want to go on the show, it was awful,' says Shazia, who'd already turned the show down twice before.

Looking at footage she still didn't think it was for her but spoke to previous participants Josie Long and Dr Dawn Harper.

'They both said to me 'it's absolutely awful, it's the worst thing I've ever done in my life but it will change your life. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and you have to do it'.'

She survived to the end, saying it was a matter of mind over matter; mental strength over physical strength.

'I realised how mentally strong I am and if I'm in a situation I'll be able to survive. I feel I can do anything because I've done that. You realise you can do a lot of things by yourself, but in a survival situation at the end of the day you will always need other people; the island is a metaphor for life really.

'The battles between men and women, the struggle of survival, the mundanness of how to get through life. When it goes dark very early there's nothing to do and you lie awake at night thinking about your life - what you've achieved, what you're going to change. That's very difficult, to be alone with your thoughts at night for such long periods of time with people you don't know.

'You will always need other people and that's what we realised on the island, in the end we needed each other. Everybody in life is on their phone, on their own. This new generation really doesn't know how to communicate with people and they're always on the internet, people rarely talk... you need to hear other people's stories and other people's point of view.'

• Shazia Mirza: With Love From St Tropez will be at The Garage, Chapel Field North, Norwich, on June 8. Ticket/booking details are still to be announced.

• More about Shazia Mirza can be found at shazia-mirza.com