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" I come from an Irish working-class background but went to a posh school, and any type of pretension was quickly mocked at home. I've always had a keen eye for pretension. "

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" I learnt a lot about how to negotiate the camera: everyone had told me an actor doesn't really need to do anything on screen, but I realised that wasn't true. If you do nothing, it's boring. "

Stephen Mangan

Need

You

True

" My upbringing is so fundamentally different to my parents'. It must be strange to look at your child who not only speaks with a different accent but has a totally different view of the world. "

" If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a moody folk singer, sitting on stools and being very depressing. "

" Dad was a strict disciplinarian and would give us a wallop with a wooden spoon if we were out of order. But we really respected him - he didn't try to be our best friend. "

Stephen Mangan

Best Friend

Parenting

" Theatre's a much less faddish, more sensible world than TV or film. "

Stephen Mangan

World

Much

" My mother was gentle and warm. She was the sort of person you could really open up to. I was the eldest and her only boy, so I guess I was treated differently. She did bring me up as a Catholic, and at one time I was an altar boy, but I lost my faith, as did my father, when my mother died at 45. "

Stephen Mangan

Time

Mother

" I am a passionate believer that comedy is a way of tackling some of the most dark and difficult aspects of being a human being. "

" I don't like to watch myself on screen because in my mind there is a touch of George Clooney about me, but when I see it, there is more than a little Donkey from 'Shrek' about me. "

Stephen Mangan

Mind

Myself

" My childhood was very gregarious, and I was usually surrounded by close family. "

Stephen Mangan

Childhood

Family

" Comedy is a very personal thing, and some people will find it funny, some people won't. "

" I didn't know any actors growing up. My dad was a builder, and we didn't know any arty types. "

" When you've lost a loved one, you realise how grateful you are for any help in those moments, and any scheme that tries to help families during that terrible time gets my backing. "

" I thought the best route to being the great actor I wanted to be was to play the great classical parts. "

" I was in a lot of school plays, and it became the thing I did. "

" I watch films. I play the guitar: me and some mates - I wouldn't dignify it with the term band - get together and play. "

Stephen Mangan

Play

Get Together

" I can watch anything from 1970s West Coast rock to 1990s electro-funk - I don't care. "

" When I was 13, I won a scholarship to boarding school. My parents let me choose whether to go, and I decided I wanted to. Afterwards, I went to Cambridge to study law - in a way, I was carrying the academic hopes of my family, as Mum and Dad left school at 14. "

Stephen Mangan

Law

Parents

" I'm a massive sucker for music documentaries. "

" There's always an anxiety about playing literary characters because one of the great joys of reading books is that you can create your own vision of things. "

" I enter myself in races. I did a triathlon, and I have done a marathon a couple of times. "

" I had an inspirational teacher at my junior school: Peter Nixon. He was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and slightly scary - a good combination for a teacher. "

Stephen Mangan

Inspirational

Good