A comedian appealed to fans to lend them a car before forking out hundreds of pounds to get to a gig in Kent.

Jason Manford had planned on travelling from Stockport to his stand-up show at Margate's Winter Gardens by train on Tuesday.

But his journey was cancelled in Rugby when a tree caught fire after it fell on the line.

This prompted the 41-year-old to ask his 430,000 Twitter followers if one of them would let him use their car to drive down to the coast ahead of the show's 7.30pm start.

"Anyone nearby want to lend me their car so I can get to Margate?" the funny man inquired.

"I'm not even joking – I can’t get a hire car or a cab.

"A tree crashed on to the line near Milton Keynes so the trains all stopped.

"I feel like I’m in the Truman Show today trying to get to Margate."

Mr Manford managed to hail a taxi from the station, but only to Northampton as it was "as far as this driver was willing to go".

He secured another lift after arriving in the market town, with the cabbie willing to ferry the joker to Margate for £210.

"Bargain," Mr Manford quipped.

"Had to convince him to put air con on.

"He said: 'It’s a Prius so we can either get to Margate or you can have air con – there’s not enough power to do both.'

"See you soon, Margate. You better laugh!"

The comic revealed he eventually arrived at the venue at 7.24pm, six minutes before the show was due to begin, and started the performance on time.