Barry Humphries is to present a Channel 4 series called An OAP's Guide To Britain.

The comic and actor, who is best known as his alter ego Dame Edna Everage, will host three half hour programmes that aim to provide "an irreverent guide to life as an OAP in today's world".

Channel 4 says: "Modern Britain can be a confusing place to be old. Things have changed so much and so quickly in the past few decades that it can be hard to keep up - technology, fashions, language and the invention of political correctness have contributed to making the here and now a mystifying zone for the elderly. The series considers how this generation can learn to fit into a world that prizes youth above all else?"

Talking further about the format, the network reveals: "A group of inquisitive oldies investigate a series of modern-day scenarios. 94-year-old Bobby tries his best to learn how not to offend anyone by testing out phrases of yesteryear relating to some fairly sensitive issues whilst senior citizen best friends Daphne, Trish and Margot go on a quest to discover if recreational drugs can be fun for those who usually relax with a spot of gardening.

"With a curious attitude and a willingness to get to grips with the modern world, Barry and his cohorts learn what the younger generation really think of them via a focus group reviewing bogus technology, how to impress people by using some more inventive swearwords and that it really can be fun to blast your best friends to smithereens while playing a video game."

Barry Humphries, who is 82, comments: "Perhaps the English speaking world will consider me a bizarre choice to be your guide to modern Britain, considering my amazing aura of youth. However, I feel that our senior citizens deserve a nurturing and thoughtful companion in the later stages of this exciting journey called life. These programmes have been, to my pleasure and deep honour, placed in a time capsule so that older folk in the future, and even extra-terrestrials, may learn how we in 21st Century Britain learnt to adapt to the strange and many ridiculous customs imposed upon us by the young."

Channel 4's Alisa Pomeroy says: "This entertaining series offers up an insight into some of the dilemmas and confusions the older generation face when trying to live in a world that over a generation has changed so dramatically."

The series has already been filmed. It was made by Rumpus Media, the production company that also produces TV formats An Immigrant's Guide To Britain, and the BAFTA-nominated Asian Provocateur travel series starring Romesh Ranganathan.

Iain Wimbush from Rumpus Media says: "It was fantastic for us to make this series. We really loved having Barry Humphries on board to lend his gleefully funny and uplifting perspective to life as an OAP in Britain."

An OAP's Guide To Britain is due to transmit on Channel 4 later in the Spring.