I get frustrated with films that entertain me but ultimately dodge a moral question about how you should try and live.
— Ben Miller
I'm afraid I'm very optimistic - and moralistic.
It's the classic thing - children's TV gets watched by everybody, not just children. 'Horrible Histories' is the sort of thing everyone watches.
People think I'm Rob Brydon a lot.
The one thing that makes me laugh about the phrase 'the worst week of my life' is that nobody actually uses that phrase when something really bad happens.
Galactic plankton is undoubtedly out there, but it's statistically highly likely there's also another intelligent civilisation out there somewhere. Unfortunately, the distances and time differences are so great, communication might remain impossible.
As a committed Whovian, I cannot believe my luck in joining the Twelfth Doctor for one of his inaugural adventures. My only worry is that they'll make me leave the set when I'm not filming.
I did play a romantic part once - Orsino in 'Twelfth Night.'
I've never really had a plan. You never know what's going to happen.
I once played a character called Mr. Jonathan in something called 'Razzle Dazzle.' I was a choreographer of children's pageants. That was something I never imagined doing. It did great in Australia.
I took my son to an exhibition about inventing things, and he was so inspired he started collecting toilet rolls and empty bottles for his own 'inventions.'
I think poshness is very funny! But I think it's also delightful. There's something wonderful and very innocent about it, particularly with the Edwardians.
We all know to eat green vegetables and oily fish, but who does that? I'll have a cake, thanks.
One of the saddest things I've ever done is download 'I'm A Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus and play along with it with my headphones on. Oh, God. If you were to walk in and see me do that, you would really worry for me.
I have always played a slightly ineffectual, bumbly, nice guy.
Probably one of the reasons I became a comedian is that you get a chance to control when people laugh at you.
I can be indecisive about things - and the less important something is, the more indecisive I am.
My success at living a moral life is pretty terrible, but I still aspire to do it! I identify with the Johnny Cash thing that trying to live a good life and be a good person are not necessarily the same thing!
'Death In Paradise' is my dream job - a fascinating character, great scripts, superb cast, and shooting in the Caribbean with French catering.
I'm prepared to try to talk to a very beautiful girl. I learned a fantastic secret, which is that the most beautiful woman in the room is not being spoken to because she's too intimidating. They're not looking for somebody beautiful; they're looking for somebody to amuse them.
I'd probably be one of these terribly over-protective parents whose children become a neurotic wreck because they've never been exposed to real life.
Being away from my family for six months a year - even if it was in the beautiful surroundings of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean - was just too hard.
Oh, I assure you, science is anything but boring.
As an actor, it's good to try to do new things, I think.
I don't think you get a lot of comedians who are homeopaths. Comedy is essentially about not being hoodwinked.
I'm a have-a-go dad. I like babies.
Our annual school physics trip was always to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, as it's such a good example of Newtonian physics. You can learn about centrifugal force and Newton's first law from the roller coasters, and the Viking long boat is a giant pendulum. It's good for children to understand that science underpins all these brilliant things.
You need to take a little break sometimes. Then, hopefully, you get some more lead in your pencil, and you're raring to go again!
I love the basic comedy of growing a moustache.
My kids are blissfully unaware of anything I do. I asked my four-year-old, Harrison, what I did, and he said, 'You're an electrician.' He must have seen me changing a lightbulb.
All men in their 40s want to be in rock bands, and I reserve the right to be in a pub band at some point.
That was one of the amazing things about Doctor Who. Considering it is such an enormous charabanc, a centerpiece of international TV, it feels incredibly small when you are actually involved in it. It is very intimate, very small; it feels like a few people messing about with a camera.
Life is a mystery: you've just got to go with it.
I adored 'Drop the Dead Donkey.' That show defined Channel 4 at the time; it was so inventive and off the leash.
For me, one of the things art has to examine is how to live your life, and unless it's doing that, it doesn't work for me.
Ricky Gervais has jokes about people with disabilities, but do I think that's a healthy thing? Yes, I really do, because he's chosen his targets very carefully, and he's thought about what he's doing.
You can reveal yourself on stage in a way that you can't on TV. If you drop a character on TV, it's death. Each character has to be ruthlessly, faultlessly played. But live, you can hint at what's going on behind. You can let the audience in a bit and go off the script.
I live a pretty sedentary life, usually. I'm not an action man at all.
Science was always a passion, but I also loved 'Monty Python' and 'The Young Ones,' and I discovered the Footlights comedy club at university, where a lot of those people got their start. I had a go and loved it immediately. After that, I just couldn't stop writing sketches, and it all took off from there.
I'm not afraid to say it - I'm proud to be from a nation that wears its heart on its sleeve and isn't scared to show its feelings.
As with anything that involves emotional pain, comedy isn't too far behind. There's that element of no matter how painful something is - as long as it is not you that is going through it - it can be funny.
I like to think of myself as focused in work, but it probably comes across as obsessive.
Acting and writing are the things I like doing. I don't like presenting that much.
I used to go badger-watching as a boy, and it's brilliant fun - they're incredibly active animals, and the cubs are very funny to watch.
It's great to do stuff that 'gets you out of the house' in a way - that gets you to meet other people!
Prostate cancer has taken a lot from me. First it took my grandfather and then my dad.
I'd like to have a neck. Everyone else has a neck, but I never got one; I don't know what happened. I'm not asking for much: just some sort of separation between my head and my body would be great.
It was only in the second year of my Ph.D. that I started acting. I wasn't in school plays or anything; I was in bands, but I wasn't cool. There's no such thing as a cool physics person, is there?
I work out in the Caribbean for half the year, playing a detective who's really into science. Anybody who knows me will tell you that's a dream come true. But it's tough for my family. We only get to see each other every two and a half to three weeks.
I'm obsessed with coffee.
