Armando Iannucci is one of my heroes. As I was growing up, he was probably the most influential comic voice that I had.

I care about facts the way I care about oxygen and imbibing enough water a day to live.

Teenagers falling off skateboards - funny. Nut shots - funny. Breaking wind - funny. The world cannot change those. Those three things are columns upon which humor is built.

My family is from Liverpool, so I have some of those vowel sounds, I've got the slack tone of someone from Birmingham, and then I was raised in Bedford, which is just north of London. So my accent, if it's possible, makes even less sense to a Brit than to an American.

I find it hard in my general life to think further than the week ahead.

Every empire has to get sucked down the drain. As a British person, I know how it feels.

I'm British; pessimism is my wheelhouse.