You end up with this succession of periods when everything was marvellous - from King Arthur to the medieval times, Ivanhoe, chivalry, Henry VIII, Merry England, the Blitz

I've got a very peculiar sort of fame, based on being on the telly. It doesn't mean you have the lifestyle people expect.

There's an awful lot of terrible television which I could do, but I mostly stick to Have I Got News for You.

England Their England by AG Macdonell which was written in the thirties and is about a young Scotsman who's got shell shocked during the First World War… I love it.

My mother was a terrific force in my life. Wartime-generation woman, hadn't gone to university but should have done. Was very funny, very verbal, very clever, very witty.

I've seen the Pokémon movie, which is probably the worst movie ever made on any subject ever.

Internet journalism is not a world we know very well at all. It's conducted more on the screen and less in bars, which makes it rather less useful for getting stories about people throwing up over one another, which is what one's after.