WHEN it comes to comedian and political satirist Mark Thomas, the phrase the truth is stranger than fiction couldn't be more appropriate.

He unravels a tangled world of duplicity and betrayal in his touring stage show Cuckooed for which the reverberations are still being felt.

First performed at last year's Edinburgh Fringe to sell-out audiences, the very clever show chronicles his own true story of how Britain's biggest arms manufacturer, BAE Systems, came to spy on a television presenter and comic.

"It is a bizarre story but one I think is becoming increasingly more commonplace when you consider the number of stories coming out about the Special Demonstration Squad and the police spying on them, the rise in corporate spies - there's an enormous number of corporate spying companies - and the lack of control upon them," he says ahead of appearing at the Tron, Glasgow, from February 10 to 12.

"It seems absolutely bizarre to me the security services are asking for control over encryption but no-one is prepared to take control over the security service's invasions of privacy."

Cuckooed recounts the infiltration of Thomas's group of anti-arms trade campaigners by a plant from BAE Systems in the one-man show. A tale of hubris, planes, demos and undercover deceit, it is as shocking as it is thought-provoking.

Just back from the West Bank, where he was doing book readings in Romala, Bethlehem and East Jerusalem, Thomas says he is on a high after doing a gig at the Palestinian National Theatre.

But back to Cuckooed and its very basic issues of trust and deceit.

"Without trust it all falls apart, everything falls apart. If you look at it politically and go, what happens when banks, media, police and politicians - four of the big pillars collapse - and we lose trust in those institutions? What happens is UKIP," he says.

"The nice thing about the show is I go on stage and have conversations with people who are my friends who I have trusted in the most extreme circumstances and bizarrely the relationship between us - the people who I speak to, the other actors I have conversations with, who I have filmed and talked to and appear in the show - I feel a bond of trust with them that is profound in the way that it has not only maintained itself but intensified because of the experience we've been through, and because of our determination not to let it twist our lives out of shape."

Thomas and his campaigners were taken in by a man they knew as Martin. For years Martin appeared to work for the Campaign Against Arms Trade, forging bonds and loyal friendships with his fellow activists. But he was also being paid to spy on the group by BAE Systems.

Des Thomas still smart from being duped?

"Not really, on occasion, it depends what mood I'm in," he says, mulling it over." Some days I wake up and I just think he's a f****** idiot. Other days I wake up and think he is a deluded, self-aggrandising, self-justifying fool. And other days I think he's a nasty piece of work.

"And then some days I think he's as much a victim in this as we all are because he didn't get paid a lot of money, he's certainly not come out of it well and no-one seems to have really protected him. I know his house, I know where he lives and he hasn't financially benefited from it in any major or obvious way."

Which begs the question why Martin took on the role in the first place? Was he on a power trip? Or foolishly taken in by the thought of being a spy?

"I suspect he deeply enjoyed it. It is the personality that says I want to burn both ends," reasons Thomas. " I want to be the most important person.

"He really enjoyed getting one over BAE Systems. And he really enjoyed the process of being the person who knows more than anyone else in the room."

More a piece of complex theatre than stand-up, Thomas has shifted dramatically from his roots on BBC's The Mary Whitehouse Experience and then on Channel 4's The Mark Thomas Comedy Product.

With a blend of stand-up, theatre and journalism he has carved a unique niche.

It has also seen him branded a domestic extremist and he is currently suing the Metropolitan Police, along with five other journalists, for allegedly unlawfully snooping on them.

The journalists discovered they had been the subject of surveillance after demanding to see their files under Data Protection laws. All were targets of Scotland Yard's National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit.

" It is difficult to say what will happen but we are very determined, we are very committed to going all the way on it. Which means if we have to end up in Europe we will," he states matter of factly.

" I believe in journalism. I believe in good journalism. The fact that when people moan about journalists and say, 'Well they're all bent, what about the phone hacking?' And I always say, 'You wouldn't know about it without the work of a journalist. You wouldn't know about MPs' expenses without Heather Brooke putting in the FOI and pursuing it.

"I believe in the power to inform people and in the power of an informed and engaged press."

Mark Thomas, the Tron, Glasgow, February 10 to 12. Call 0141 552 4267 for tickets.