You have a huge amount of confidence when you're younger, which slowly ebbs away for the rest of your life. You think: 'No problem. I can do that. Why shouldn't I do it?'

All the libel lawyers will tell you there's no libel any more, that everyone's given up.

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.

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.

I like making films about old people because they are repositories of amazing stories that they tell well. And they're incredibly good telly.

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

The best comedy is where you attack the strong, not the weak.