Sometimes great stuff comes quickly and sometimes it doesn't and you've got to dig in for the long haul, don't loose heart, and wait for something to come along. Which is something you learn the more you do it, that if it isn't coming straight away just hang in there and something will come.

I think, if you've got children, that's your life. Your 'showbiz' life, if you want to call it that, is a separate thing, and it isn't everything to me.

If you're a comedian, you are looking for material in daily life.

I don't think any of my kids would have a good word to say about me. I think they deny that they even know me. At school, they pretend they are Anton du Beke's kids.

The thing is, when I had my first success it did coincide with the end of my first marriage, and because I went on to have a very, very unhappy two years, I don't think I equate career success with personal happiness.

Math was a two-part exam and I once didn't go for the second part. I knew I'd done so badly on the first it was hopeless. I re-took it about four or five times. I think I eventually got it by getting the top GCSE grade.

I still have lots of friends from my pre-success days.