I've done loads of things people have never seen, dramas on BBC4 and plays upstairs at the Royal Court and the Bush, and because I didn't go to drama school, they gave me an education.

My mum and dad have always enjoyed life, and it's something that's been instilled in me. I wake up in a good mood most mornings.

Because I was always a fat child, I got fatter and fatter, and I ended up 18 stone and with a 40-inch waist.

I'm sure that my father becoming seriously ill when I was 14 had a lot to do with my going from chubby to fat.

Being kind is the most important thing Ive ever been taught. Thats what my parents always told me - more important than ambition or success is being kind to people. The cornerstone of my life. What I aspire to is to be kind.

I think one of the main differences between being an English actor and being an American actor is that we have things like the class system in England.I'm middle class. But I've got what some people might consider to be a working-class accent, so you've got those sorts of elements in this country to consider, which, in America, exist, but not necessarily in the same way.

I'll probably always be 'Timothy Spall's son' and it's something I'm proud of. Maybe one day as well as that, they'll say of Timothy Spall that 'He's Rafe Spall's dad'.