Fans of his comedy routines assembled at the finish and chanted his name as he stumbled over it. He then performed a good impression of a man about to collapse. Speaking between gasps, he said that he felt “dead”. He put his success down to the fact that he was “a relentless idiot”.

He had embarked on his 43 marathons in part as a celebration of the Olympics coming to London in 2012. It was also in aid of the charity Sports Relief, which has raised donations by sending likeable but comfortably built celebrities on demanding physical challenges. [T]his year it was the turn of Izzard, a cross-dressing comedian of dubious athletic abilities who has occasionally claimed be “a black-belt in sashimi”.