A biography for Paul Whitehousehasn’t been written yet.
“Nurse' couldn't be construed as laughing at the characters. You can't do something about mental illness without being genuine about the characters. Given the nature of the material, you can't fake it. That would be trite and wrong.”
“We moved to London from the Rhondda Valley when I was four.”
“I'm quite grumpy.”
“Only Fools' wasn't just a comedy show, it became part of people's lives.”
“Making it big in pop would have suited me fine, although comedy is a far better world for an older person.”
“I was in bands and things like that.”
“I was what I call a 'nut lifter' in a factory in Enfield. I had to get nuts and bolts from the production line into big tins.”
“Working on 'Nurse' was actually a labour of love for us; we helped each other through it and found it very uplifting in a curious way.”
“You've got to try something new and risk opprobrium. But you won't see me debuting at Glyndebourne.”
“All TV production companies and channels, not just the BBC, know that drama is what they can sell internationally to bring money in.”
“Sometimes I don't argue enough.”
“When we did 'The Fast Show Live,' we got a great deal of affection from the audience. That feeds your enjoyment and everybody else's.”
“We've talked about it, but I think one of the reasons 'Gone Fishing' is popular is that the fishing is on our doorstep. Even the more highfalutin places are available to anyone at certain times of the year. It's sometimes expensive, but no more expensive than you'd spend going to the football.”
“If you do certain accents it's considered racist, but I'm not convinced it is.”
“Nurse' is a project close to my heart.”
“As more and more new houses get built, they just suck the water out of rivers.”
“In many ways I was lucky: my dad had a quadruple bypass in his fifties. When I had the heart stents, the guy who did it said, 'Well I didn't put them in for you to go and sit by the fire, so get up and go out.'”
“I never eat veal. I don't agree with the way it is produced.”
“I met Harry through a mutual friend in the early Eighties, when Harry used to do a passable Prince Charles impersonation over a pint in my local pub in Hackney.”
“I'm lazy.”