For some reason, I got really obsessed with Samuel Pepys and his diaries when I read them, and with that period. I was probably a man with a wig and a frock coat in a past life!

I think I might have exaggerated some abilities in the past. Practical abilities for acting jobs you sometimes have on your CV - I have definitely exaggerated in meetings to get a job and then not been up to scratch on the day.

I decided I'd try my hand as a stand-up comedian, as I loved making people laugh, and appeared at the Latitude Festival, won the 2007 Laughing Horse New Act of the Year, and was a nominee for winner of the 2007 So You Think You're Funny competition.

I was about ten when I first got laughs playing Fagin in 'Oliver' at junior school in Offerton. It was the best feeling in the world, and I didn't want it to end.