F Essex County Council is still eager to rid the county of its “chav-like” reputation it couldn’t pick a better person than Griff Rhys Jones as a model for the archetypal Essex man.

He is well-read, cultured and very popular and funny.

It doesn’t matter one jot that he technically lives just across the border in Holbrook, Suffolk, or that he was born in Cardiff. For Griff is an Essex man through and through.

Anyone who has read his gorgeous account of growing up in the county, Semi-Detached, will be more than aware of his love for Essex, and with both his brother and sister living here, his roots are firmly planted.

In the book, Griff recreates his suburban childhood and adolescence in precise and evocative detail, from every young trauma, embarrassment and joyous rebellion to hazily-remembered summer afternoons in wild woods and along Essex creeks.

He says: “My father had a boat moored in West Mersea for a long time and we used to take regular bus trips into Colchester, which were always like a little adventure. “We used to sail up and down most of the rivers and creeks and I suppose that’s why we have all ended up here.”

It’s also possibly why Griff, 56, chose to do an interview with us despite being approached by several other publications to do interviews, including a national newspaper, all of which he turned down.

And that’s not the only reason I have to be fortunate.

Griff’s grumpiness may have been well-documented, but when I get to speak to him, he is as jolly and relaxed as any man would be on a boat somewhere on an anonymous beautiful stretch of water.

Today he should be even happier when he receives, an honorary degree from Essex University alongside students from the East 15 Acting School, based in Southend, as well as students from the department of art history.

They are two subjects very close to his heart.

Griff first found himself on the stage thanks to old Brentwood School friend the late, great Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Griff explains: “He went to Cambridge the year before me. When I went the following year, I found a note in my pigeonhole from him asking me to be in a play. He convinced me it would be a good thing to do.”

While at university, Griff joined the prestigious Cambridge Footlights Club, of which he became vice-president in 1976.

After hooking up with other Footlights luminaries usch as as Clive Anderson, he started appearing in numerous comedy programmes.

His big break came in the Eighties and the seminal sketch show, Not The Nine O’Clock News.

Griff became an integral part of the team along with Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson. He then went on to form one of the strongest comedy partnerships in television with Mel Smith.

Recently Griff has gone back to those early days with a stint as Fagin in the West End musical Oliver.

“I thought I’d hung up my acting boots years ago,” Griff says. “I saw Mel in Hairspray a while back, and thought how does he do that every day, and then, of course, I found myself on the stage.

“I greatly enjoyed doing it and I’m hoping to be acting again very soon.”

But before that Griff is back to what he now does best, travelling the world presenting various programmes on such varied subjects as mountains, cities and of course messing about in boats.

Later this month he’s back with Rory McGrath and Dara O’Briain for the filming of another whimsical, humorous offering of Three Men in a Boat, this time in Scotland.

After that he will be making a trip to the South Sea Islands which will form part of a new series for the BBC on tribal art.

Griff says: “I’ve been interested in the subject for a while and have collected bits and pieces over the years.

When he’s at Essex University today he will be in very good company indeed.

“I have received a few honorary degrees before,” Griff admits. “One with my mum in Wales which was rather nice, but my family and I are so associated with this county it is going to be rather special.”