I can't take UKIP seriously. I should, I must, it's our duty to take them seriously, because they're coming out with some really heinous old crap about immigration.

The Gift' doesn't deal with the neat, tie-me-up-with-a-bow kind of stories - they are grittier, messier, and not all of them have a happy resolution. You are following people and events that are more difficult, more elusive, and therefore harder to pin down.

I feel very lucky. 'Bake Off' has opened more doors for me. I was so delighted to get the job.

For me, Christmas was always about presents. As a child, we each had an allotted place in the sitting room for the ceremonial unwrapping and mine was perched beside the telly on a Moroccan pouffe. We would watch our mum with bated breath as she divided up the gifts.

My first manager, he had left Germany when he was five, but he would joke about the Nazis. And I'd laugh, but I'd look at him, and he was the first one who told me, 'You know, funny is a powerful thing; it's a wonderful weapon.'

Please, please, please - I would love to do some comedy. Once you have a reputation for one thing - in my case, crying and dying - you are typecast.

Without a sense of humor, I would have been gone a long time ago.

We love the Stooges, and young kids today don't watch them. They think it's their dad's comedy. So we thought we could reintroduce them to a new audience.