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.

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 do something and it goes wrong, you learn from it and you move on.

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

I think my biggest appeal for fans is probably the fact that I'm honest. I'm up front about who I am. I'm a little naughty. I have a naughty side and everybody knows that. But I know when to use that and when not to.

I trust the [series] writers when I'm filming, because it's interesting for me to go in every week and see what's going to happen, and the challenge for me as the actor is to make it work.

I’m an openly gay man playing an omnisexual hero, who is loved on both sides of the Atlantic. How could I not be proud of that?