Quotes from Les Dennis

I wish I'd gone to university. I had the opportunity to go to Oxford but by then I'd already started as a comedian.

Every night in 'Hairspray' we will be doing a vocal warmup, so I hope that will improve the muscles. It is a muscle, and we've not been using it - anybody that is on stage, that is.

My whole break-up with Amanda Holden was in the papers for three years and my dogs were photographed being taken for walks more than any in Britain. They're two Cairn terriers. I don't have them now, though, she has them.

And if I hadn't done 'Celebrity Big Brother', I wouldn't have got 'Extras', so in the long run what was seen as a terrible mistake turned out well.

One thing that continues to worry me is Phil's naivety. It's lovely in ways, but as his dad I don't want him ever to be taken advantage of because of his niceness.

I changed Philip's nappies when he was a baby and did my fair share of getting up and rocking him to sleep. Bringing up a little girl will be a different experience for me.

Phil's a lovely, lovely boy. He's 33, but I still call him my 'boy'. He was young when 'Family Fortunes' started, and there's a lovely photo of him holding up a clapperboard for me on set.

I've never watched any videos of my time on 'Celebrity Big Brother'. Honestly. It's something I could save for when I'm an old man. It was a watershed, the catalyst to the end of my second marriage.

If I'd been doing the cabaret circuit or the club circuit or the Saturday night telly that was around in the 80s, I wouldn't be around any more, because those shows have fallen by the wayside. So I have had to keep changing.

I got a little bit pleased with myself. I didn't buy a Rolls-Royce or anything like that but I didn't see my biological family for a while. I was getting a bit self-important and they told me. They dragged me back.

I made the decision to go on stage after my father died. And he would have wanted me to. But I won't try and plug huge grief up with the false world of show-business ever again.

I am a big self-doubter. I suffer from Impostor Syndrome. Whenever I start a new job, I think: 'I'm going to be found out.' I don't have a huge ego or enormous belief in my own talent.

I wish people would listen rather than rush around in their own world. There's a danger that we are becoming stuck in a bubble and losing the ability to communicate.

Every city has comedians who tap into local culture and have success but don't travel well.

I love coming to Edinburgh and last time I was here, Claire and I found out we were expecting our daughter Eleanor, so it's a place dear to my heart.

Extras changed the public's perception of me hugely - they saw there was more to me than just this bloke off the telly.

I am a very honest, open person and I think there is a tendency in celebrity autobiographies to gloss over certain things which have happened.

A lot of the comics called me Bronco because I wouldn't get off - if I had to do an hour, I would stand there, even if it wasn't going well. I knew comics that would climb out of dressing room windows after they'd done their first spot.

But the one thing you can say about me is that I'm very resilient. I always bounce back. I'm like a rubber ball.

As a young comedian playing the working men's clubs in the 70s, I'd been in awe of Dustin Gee.

When I power-walk with a couple of mates, it's like a men's club. We talk about what it's like to be, well, men. It works as exercise and therapy.

I do sometimes stop and think. I mean, I'm 62 now and I've got a child on my shoulders and he could be my grandson.

If I go out to a house and it's half empty I prefer to think it's half full. And I trust people. Even if it all goes wrong you go again.

Being a parent is a tiring business.