Comedy is a very personal thing, and some people will find it funny, some people won't.

I dont like to watch myself on screen because in my mind there is a touch of George Clooney about me, but when I see it, there is more than a little Donkey from Shrek about me.

I watch films. I play the guitar: me and some mates - I wouldnt dignify it with the term band - get together and play.

I'm a massive sucker for music documentaries.

I didnt know any actors growing up. My dad was a builder, and we didnt know any arty types.

Theres always an anxiety about playing literary characters because one of the great joys of reading books is that you can create your own vision of things.

When you've lost a loved one, you realise how grateful you are for any help in those moments, and any scheme that tries to help families during that terrible time gets my backing.

When I was 13, I won a scholarship to boarding school. My parents let me choose whether to go, and I decided I wanted to. Afterwards, I went to Cambridge to study law - in a way, I was carrying the academic hopes of my family, as Mum and Dad left school at 14.

My upbringing is so fundamentally different to my parents'. It must be strange to look at your child who not only speaks with a different accent but has a totally different view of the world.

I spent six years touring the world playing Shakespeare, Molire, Shaw, Goldsmith... But I slowly came to realise that the people you are working with are as important as the parts you play, and that there were lots of interesting people working in film and T.V.