I'm all set to get cooking for Russell on theatre tour

I'll clock up more miles than Sebastian Vettel, but I'm looking forward to it. Shows like Ready Steady Cook are iconic and it's a privilege to be asked.

The tour starts in September at the Sunderland Empire and will continue well into the new year.

It visits just about every town and city in the UK and it will be great fun. It continues until April next year and while I won't be appearing at every venue – I'll do 29 shows – I'm going to be on the road for quite a while.

I'm still waiting to find out exactly which dates I'll be playing; at this stage, I need to wait to find out when I'm needed. But the nature of the tour means I could, quite literally, be driving to Edinburgh to appear at the Playhouse one night, before driving to York to appear at the Opera House.

The distances involved are huge. The tour visits Southport one day, King's Lynn the next. In November, it hops from Dunfermline to Stoke-on-Trent before going back up to Sheffield and then to Bradford.

There are quite a few local dates, so hopefully I'll get to do some of those – if nothing else, that will help to save my fuel bill. There are two nights at Birmingham's New Alexandra Theatre.

There are also gigs just down the M54, at Wolverhampton's Civic Hall and it's booked into my own home town, Shrewsbury, with a date at the Theatre Severn.

The format of the show is great. TV chef Lesley Waters will top the bill and she'll be joined by host Russell Grant. I get on really well with Russell. I've cooked for him on TV before and he told me that he was one of my biggest fans – it's a ringing endorsement from one of the nation's great entertainers.

There will be rolling programme of celebrity chefs joining Lesley and Russell and I'll be among them. People like Tony Tobin, who starred for many years on Ready Steady Cook, will also be joining the party. It will be a blast. The line-up will also feature Nick Nairn, Brian Turner and Kevin Woodford.

Of course, appearing on Ready Steady Cook LIVE! doesn't mean I'll be neglecting my duties at Brompton Cookery School. I've got plenty of courses booked in and i'll be dashing back to do as many of those as I possibly can.

But I must admit, I'm excited about Ready Steady Cook LIVE! Lesley will be bringing alive on stage all of the favourite ingredients of TV's best-loved cooking show.

Russell will introduce Lesley and a guest chef – on 29 occasions, that'll be me – to battle out the 'Green Pepper' and 'Red Tomato' kitchen challenge and audience members will then be able to vote for their favourite.

They will have the chance to join in the fun on stage by supplying one of the two ingredient bags for the cook- off challenge, or the famous Quickie Bag.

The show will be perfect for fans of the programme, foodies or those in need of culinary support. Fans can watch and learn insider tips and ask us chefs burning questions on preparing a better meal.

It promises to cap a busy year. In recent times, I've been down to London to cook at Hyde Park in the M&S Summertime Kitchen as part of British Summer Time. I've also cooked at the BBC Good Food Show, at the NEC, in Birmingham, which was great fun. There's plenty in the diary for the rest of the year and I'm relishing every moment.

When September comes, the choice will be simple. Red pepper or green tomato?

Marcus Bean is a regular on ITV This Morning. He owns the Brompton Cookery School, at Atcham, near Shrewsbury, on a National Trust Estate. Read his column first in your Weekend Express & Star.