Many things shaped my identity as a young boy: a strong selfworth (something that was instilled in all three Barrowman siblings by our parents), my immersion in theatre and music, and my DNA. I was born gay. It's not a choice I – or anyone else who is gay – made. If it were, why on earth would anyone choose to be part of a minority, part of a group that in so many cultures and countries, even in the twenty-first century, is regularly blasphemed, hounded and worse?

If you put a label on yourself, people will pigeonhole you.

Whenever I'm in Glasgow I go and stand outside the front of the house I grew up in, which is in Mount Vernon.

What I can say that's different in American television… in Britain, they wouldn't cancel something after a couple of episodes. In the States they would. They would just decide it's not working, take it off and put something else in on the fall schedule.

As an actor, I only play what is in the moment, rather than in the future, but sometimes the past is more important than what is coming up in the future.

I don't call myself an actor, I call myself an entertainer, because I don't just do one thing.

The one thing that makes 'Torchwood' work so brilliantly and makes it a little bit above the rest of all other sci-fi dramas out there is that we have a sense of humour.