It is easy for me to love myself, but for ladies to do it is another question altogether.

I avoid any kind of organised trips as that's one of my bugbears.

I've always been looking for other people's approval.

With stand-up you've just got that one chance. Audiences can be quite fickle.

We had a week off in the middle of shooting, but as soon as everyone stopped, we all went down with six different types of flu and other unmentionable diseases.

Health-wise, I couldn't have said what my life expectancy would've been if I'd just carried on doing solid blocks of stand-up.

I came back from university thinking I knew all about politics and racism, not knowing my dad had been one of the youngest-serving Labour councillors in the town and had refused to work in South Africa years ago because of the situation there. And he's never mentioned it - you just find out. That's a real man to me. A sleeping lion.