LEE MACK

I feel that I'm a stand-up comedian more than anything else, that's my job.

It's always been my favourite show and I am on a mission to get on 'Doctor Who.'

Genuinely my big thing and the reason I'm in 'The Miser' is because I always ask myself one simple question when I'm offered anything: Will it get me nearer to being 'Doctor Who' or further away?

The default position now is that comedians do Twitter but I don't know why. Every bad story you see about a comedian has a connection to Twitter.

I'm a huge fan of stuff like 'Planet Earth' and the American sitcom 'Everybody Loves Raymond.'

I was 38 when 'Not Going Out' began, and I was playing a 34-year-old who had a thing about his landlady.

The rules of comedy are, don't complain, it's a brilliant job. You complain, and you're seen as losing touch with reality.

Everyone talks about the gags, but the most difficult thing is coming up with the stories. You have to learn to do that for sitcoms.

I really don't like reality television and the nonsense that comes with it.

I can remember weird things from way back, but not what I had for breakfast.

I talk a lot when I'm nervous.

Loads of blokes think they're funny, but it counts for nothing unless you get up and have a go.

When I tell a joke, I don't think about who's listening to it. I tell the jokes I think are funny.

I do write a lot of stuff for my tours. I think I just want to give people their money's worth. They've paid to come and see jokes so I try to give them as many as I can.

My first recollection of performing was shortly after my parents split up, so the logical conclusion to draw is that that affected me.

There's nothing more damning in life than a child calmly and coldly saying, 'Are you aware that you're teaching me bad habits?'

I'm not a comedian who wants to spend far too long on stage.

When men sit around and talk, they are very competitive. One person will tell an anecdote and the next person will try to top that. When you get six women together, they share a lot more. They will be far more interested in what the other person has to say. The conservation is more interactive and less about individually showing off.

But it's true, I was a sports organiser at Pontins - one of a series of terrible jobs I had before I started doing comedy full time.

I don't know the statistics, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that a disproportionate number of comics come from broken homes.

From the age of 14, I remember thinking I wanted to be a comedian. But that was like saying I wanted to be an astronaut. It felt like a million miles away, something I could never do, but would be great to.

I use Wikipedia and eBay; I look for singles for my 1950s jukebox.

When I'm on tour I just ring up the theatres, book it and go on. You can pretty much go on tour when you want but you can't just make a telly show when you want.

I would say about 90 per cent of drunken idiots in comedy clubs wear ties, particularly in London where I work most of the time.

Bobby Ball, who plays my dad in 'Not Going Out,' is very funny. He has a magical sense for comedy that nobody has been able to replicate.