AN Old Kilpatrick comedian who has been performing at the Edinburgh Fringe has brought home the BBC’s New Comedy award.

Stand-up Stephen Buchanan, 26, entered the competition along with 600 others and successfully won the prize of £1,000 and a 15-minute script commission from BBC studios.

He performed a five-minute segment from his “Purpleberry” show ,which was broadcast live on Radio 4 from the Edinburgh Fringe.

He told the Post: “Winning the award was amazing. It’s still not hit me yet. It was a totally surreal moment.

“I think once I go home after the Fringe it’ll finally sink in. This is the first award I’ve won, if you don’t count the ‘funniest boy’ award at my high school prom.”

The former Clydebank High pupil entered the competition by submitting a five-minute video recording.

He then competed in the regional heats, where he won at the Comedy Store Manchester, before progressing to two semi-finals and the final itself, along with six others.

Stephen entered the competition last year but was unsuccessful, and, determined to do better this year, he went a step further and beat all other competitors.

He performed his first solo show nearly everyday this month at the Three Broomsticks as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Stephen said: “Getting to perform to different audiences every day and making people laugh is a dream come true. I’m very excited for the future.

“I plan to continue to gig throughout the UK and hopefully come back to Edinburgh next year with my debut hour.

“I’ll also be working on the script commission over the next year or so.”

The award winning short segment was inspired by his life at home living with and learning from a refugee.

His “amazing” mum took in a 16-year-old boy from Vietnam.

Susy Greig, Stephen’s cousin, said: “The whole family are beyond proud of Stephen. We couldn’t all get tickets to the final so we got together in my grampa’s house and listened on the radio and we were all jumping about cheering when we heard he’d won.

“He’s always been the comedian of the family - making people laugh comes so easy to him.”