86 Quotes by Keith Allen

My father was in the navy. I always found it a bit strange that he would choose to spend an extraordinary amount of time underneath the water in a submarine with 60 men.

It must have been horrible for my parents to see me go from public school to comprehensive to detention centre to borstal. I was busy ploughing my own furrow, but I must have been a terrible worry to them, and for that I am sorry.

I'd done performance art sporadically from about 1976 - very personal street things on my own. Acting seemed like a natural step from that. But I didn't really want to 'be' anything: presenter, comic, actor. I just wanted to perform.

I was brought up on stuffed hearts, cabbage and mashed potatoes. It's repulsive, when I look back - I used to go to the butchers to get Mum's sausages, and I would cut one off and squeeze the inside of it straight into my mouth. Insane!

Growing up we were very working-class; you had dinner at 12, then tea at 4:30. If you got supper, you were doing bloody well.

Give me some grilled halloumi and a bit of hummus to snack on, and I'm in heaven.

I can honestly say that throughout the 70s I never watched telly. I can remember 'Dr Who' and 'Morecambe and Wise' vaguely, but my generation didn't watch telly.

I started out in comedy gigging and scraping a living together, and eventually worked up to doing shows at the Comedy Store in London in 1979. That led on to me presenting a show in the early days of Channel 4 called 'Whatever You Want,' which had live music and sketches.

I am certain things to certain generations. Lots of people remember me from the 'Comic Strip,' there was the 'Vindaloo' song for the 1998 World Cup, then it was playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in the BBC's 'Robin Hood.'