Hugh Dennis

As long as youre happy where you are now, you cant really regret anything youve done.

I know Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin of old, having worked with them for many years on 'Outnumbered.'

Sometimes I do think that politicians are only in it for themselves, but actually as Ive got older Ive started to feel less cynical about them.

I like to know a tiny bit about almost everything. I do like a pub quiz.

I was a brand manager for four years and it was good fun.

I think youve got to work out what makes you happy. With me, its that I do lots of different things. So Ive got this rather odd career whereby Im not really a stand-up and Im not really an actor and Im not really a writer. But I do them all.

Ive always done accents and stupid voices. But I went to school in Hampstead, where most of my mates were Jewish, and Jewish North London humour is so clever that I never thought I was funny.

Ive been to a lot of unusual places including Peru, Nepal, Laos, Cambodia and up the Mekong.

I drove from Addis Ababa to Aksum, where they have the Ark of the Covenant, to the Semien Mountains in the Highlands. I love how the country has a distinct identity and historical borders that werent randomly carved up by explorers.

One of my travelling bugbears is just people-watching or sticking to a rigid to-do list without venturing further afield.

I love the whole mess of family life. I love having the focus elsewhere and worrying about the kids as opposed to myself. I love both the chaos and the structure that family brings.

Both my comedy partner, Steve Punt - who grew up in Reigate and is the son of a civil servant - and I come from similarly suburban backgrounds, and its really what fuels our comedy.

I vary from issue to issue and Im not party political at all. I think its important in comedy not to come from any set angle or it would be too predictable.

Everyone's careers go at different paces; you need to forget what other people are doing and concentrate on your own progress.

We had an enormous rhubarb patch at home and my mother forced me to eat that stuff without any sugar for most of my childhood.

Ive become a parody of myself, as Im a big fan of a skinny cappuccino.

I cut the cord for my son, which was a tremendous pleasure, though Ive never eaten calamari since.

The Great British Dig' is a fantastic format which combines finding out about the history of where you live and the surprising things that lie under your own back garden. Its kind of a community archaeology project.

I didnt travel properly until the year before university when I went backpacking around the US, circling around from New York up to Boston, then travelling on the Canadian Pacific Railway to Montreal and going down the west coast of America.

After university, I travelled through China for about two or three months in 1985. It was very much a closed-off country and no one spoke English, so it was very hard travelling through it.

I always tell myself every disaster is more material for my work and another anecdote to tell.

When I was seven, I went on a school trip to Blankenberge on an overnight ferry and I remember watching the White Cliffs of Dover disappear into the distance. After that trip, our family always spent holidays in Britain and Ive been to nearly every cathedral in Britain.

I started running after I left university and have loved it ever since.

My first proper race was a full marathon in 1987. A work colleague convinced us this was the best way to start and signed me up for the Lakeland marathon.

I dont run much on roads any more but instead stick to the trails around where I live in West Sussex. Im surrounded by hills and so love doing long loops over the South Downs. Give me mud, puddles, flinty paths and nettles any day.

Im an entirely one-paced runner, but occasionally I try and go into a slightly higher speed and usually pull my dodgy hamstring. So I just potter along with my rather odd bow-legged running style.

Id always read newspapers for pleasure, then it became my job. These days I will read the news with half a mind on what I can use. It means I get quite a warped sense of whats going on in the world.

Steve Punt and I have always tried to go so fast that its physically impossible to heckle.

I travelled across Canada on the Canadian Pacific Railway when I was 18. I didnt realise how long the journey was - four days - and I didnt buy enough food. All I had was four slabs of Philadelphia cream cheese and some biscuits.

I dont dream that much, but for a long time I had a recurring dream which wasnt funny at all. I was in a physics exam, and was asked a question by a teacher which I constantly got wrong.

I would rather have nothing worth stealing than live my life trying to protect things.

I think I've said sorry to practically everyone the whole way through my life. I am always saying sorry.

Since I had children, I cry all the time - I just had a little cry in 'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.'

My dad was a vicar and my mum was a primary school teacher, so I was always aware of being in a very supportive family.

The key thing I took from my upbringing is that people are just people. My parents never worried about status.

I was never consciously rebellious but I suppose comedy is a sort of act of rebellion isnt it? Coming from a quite liberal background, it never occurred to me that there was anything to rebel against because you were allowed to say what you wanted to say.

For me, family is the basis of everything. Family are the people you never have to explain yourself to; who should always be supportive of you - and you should always support them - and who wont judge you.

I always get recognised and that always takes me by surprise. Its not something I ever expect or get used to.

I never felt that I was recognised for anything in particular. I was just part of the TV furniture.

I am a cat person, although when I was a child we had a loony cat that was terrifying; if you hadn't fed it, it would chase you round the house.

If the radio isnt working I will take it apart and put it back together again. I wont have mended it, but at least Ive had a bit of a poke around and thats usually good enough for me.

I like doing live stand-up because that's where I started. If you do TV and radio you just send it out into the ether and you never find out if people like it or not. To go out and make an audience laugh is nice.

I really wanted to be a captain of industry. I worked at Unilever as brand manager for Lynx after university. While I don't regret leaving, I wish I still had a bit of power.

As a vicar's son, I understood performance. It never seemed odd to me that you'd stand up in front of people wearing weird clothes.

My prime motivation is wanting to be happy. I'm not worried about fame. In this profession, it's not a question of if it ends, it's when. So it doesn't matter.

I'm constantly looking for humour in the news. The funniest things are in the minutiae.

When you go and meet people in far-flung parts of the world who need help, they're not earnest; they're having a laugh and a joke as they transport the water you're buying for them - not trudging around saying serious things.

There's something inherently British about siding with the underdog. While comedy needs victims, it doesn't need to treat them in a brutal way - we're kind of lauding them.

Not listening to what my wife tells me is my worst habit. I'm always losing my concentration.

In the old days, you had to wait for people to give you money to go and make something. Now, you can post your own sketches online to get them seen. It means more talented people are coming through.