Comedian ‘haunted by ghost of Norfolk terrier’

THIs sounds like a sketch from one of his comedy routines, but posh comedian Alexander Armstrong has a bizarre revelation. He and his wife, Hannah, have been haunted by their dead dog. The Pointless presenter’s Norfolk terrier, Genghis, died in the summer after being hit by a car in the driveway of his country home.

But for weeks after, Armstrong ( pictured) tells me he was ‘freaked out’ by hearing the ghostly pitter-patter of his pet’s footsteps.

‘For two whole weeks we were haunted by the dead dog running up and down the stairs. It was very weird,’ said Armstrong at the Bollinger Boisdale Music Awards dinner this week.

‘It definitely wasn’t our other dog, Dotty, because she was asleep on the end of our bed. Then one day it just stopped. so I think that was his way of saying goodbye.’

Cambridge-educated Armstrong, 47, became a household name when he started hosting BBC gameshow Pointless and news quiz Have I Got News For You, and has been called the poshest man in comedy because he can trace his family tree back to William the Conqueror.

But he says his wife of 14 years, events organiser Hannah, with whom he has four children, keeps his feet on the ground. ‘All I care about is my family and children. The showbusiness thing is wobbly. If two of us were wobbly, it wouldn’t work.’

Animal-loving Armstrong has also recently started presenting ITV’s Teach My Pet To Do That, which celebrates the ‘ hidden intellectual potential’ of the nation’s pets, such as Aslan the miniature horse who was trained to answer the door.

Despite his extraordinary paranormal abilities, sadly, poor Genghis won’t have a cameo.