The Dave Gorman Collection

Danny Wallace bet Dave Gorman he couldn't find 54 other people called Dave Gorman. Dave bet Danny he could. The resultant trek takes them as far afield as the USA (where they get caught in a tornado), Israel (where they cause a security alert at the airport) and Norway (where they lose their shoes). A life-affirming tale of English eccentricity about nothing in particular apart from having a good time all the time.

Gorman's show stood out a mile at Edinburgh last year. He had acted on an impulse that most of us would leave well alone and decided to track down all his namesakes. The highs and lows of his search for other Dave Gormans were packed into a nerdily hilarious lecture, complete with projections and voiceovers. On TV, the impact is diminished; the show has simply been recorded in front of a studio audience and elongated to fit six episodes. Clearly the budget was tight. What might have been a globetrotting extravaganza in keeping with the lunatic ambition of Gorman's project is instead a nondescript-looking, if absorbing, sideshow.

Dave Gorman: Stand up, Dave, and be counted

Dave Gorman's urge to meet everyone in the UK who shared his name was a huge comic hit at the Edinburgh Fringe. Now that it's on TV he talks about his obsession.

The British comedian Dave Gorman has his own run at the subject of names next month in a programme called The Dave Gorman Collection. It tells of the journey he made from New York, via Swindon, to Tel Aviv, covering more than 20,000 miles, to meet an impressive 54 Dave Gormans. He has compiled a compendium of Dave Gorman facts: their average shoe size is eight and most of them have ginger beards.

Gorman worked on The Mrs Merton Show before setting off, literally, to find himself. He took the story of his travels to the Edinburgh Festival last summer in a show called Are You Dave Gorman? His propaganda proved so persuasive that five members of the audience changed their names to his by deed poll.

Will the real Dave Gorman please stand up?

This comedian travels the world to find people who share his name. And he's not alone in the task - Alan Berliner's doing the same thing.