Frank Skinner

“For clothes I usually go to Ben Sherman.”

“I think I'm quite broad-minded.”

“Cider was my drink because I liked the taste and it made me stupid.”

“My comedy is my life turned into jokes. I think a lot of people wouldn't like that because you end up talking about stuff where you don't always come out so well. You have to be prepared to say, 'This is me, being a prat.'”

“I stopped drinking on 24 September 1986.”

“I have seen pretty horrible blokes thinking they can do pretty much what they like over the years, not just in showbusiness but in ordinary jobs and in pubs and stuff.”

“My mum, Doris, was a source of unalloyed love. She lived for her family and would literally give you her last pound. I think she's made me a kinder person, because I think: Do I want to help this person? If my mum was around, she would have.”

“On radio there's an obligation to be funny or interesting, and ideally both.”

“I did a few mainstream clubs in Birmingham when I started out. Racist comedy was absolutely the norm. Every act was doing it and when blokes talked about their wives or women in any way it was always derogatory.”

“I stopped drinking before I became a comic; one was a replacement for the other.”

“I love touring. Not just the shows, I love hotels. I love motorway services at three o'clock in the morning. I like long car journeys, so I like all the trimmings basically.”

“Alcoholism and country music are both tremendous aids to self-dramatisation.”

“One of the most exciting things about supporting West Bromwich Albion was watching Johnny Giles play in the late '70s.”

“I don't get many compliments on my looks.”

“I think part of being human is jokes.”

“My dreams are things like: I'm in the supermarket, I queue, and then I leave the supermarket. It's basically my life but I happen to be asleep.”

“If you can stop thinking, it's like rebooting your brain.”

“I think it is a humanising thing, comedy.”

“I don't think that I'm a misogynistic person at all.”

“Not being a naturally-good-looking-ladies-man type of bloke, I hadn't had a tremendous amount of success with women. So when celebrity opened the door, I went a bit barmy.”