I was the kid who liked making other people laugh, so maybe the comedy came before the acting.

You've only got a short shelf-life as an actor, and I want to make the most of it while I can.

There are lots of actors, and you need a way to stand out. Writing comedy sketches was a way of doing that.

Things change when you get to 40. I'm embarrassed even that I'm going through it. In a very morbid way, at 40 you become aware of how long you've been on Earth and you start to question what you're going to use the remaining time doing.

I'm the person who will go to a wedding and switch the place cards around because I don't want to sit next to someone I don't know, because I'm so bad at chatting to strangers.

I never used to see anything on TV where the man was in the weaker position. It was always the female showing emotion, breaking down, being emotionally torn apart by men.

I started writing sketches with Dennis Kelly, who I ended up writing 'Pulling' with. We entered a BBC competition and did quite well, then started writing bits for other people's shows. You wheedle your way in, write pilots and eventually you end up writing a sitcom.