My Secret Life: Steve Coogan, Comedian, 44
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Your support makes all the difference.My parents were ... compassionate, liberal. My father worked for IBM. My mother raised us kids. There were six of us, and a couple of extra foster kids at any given time.
The house/flat I grew up in ... was large, red-brick, semi-detached, in an industrial town in north Manchester. A bit William Morris-ish; it had an arts and crafts aspect.
When I was a child I wanted to be ... James Bond.
If I could change one thing about myself ... it would be my disorganisation. I have an assistant who arranges my life for me, but that only exacerbates my already disorganised, attention-deficit brain. You wouldn't know it but I'm very good at ... drawing designs of cars.
You may not know it but I'm no good at ... working computers. I am of the very last generation who didn't have computers at school. As we grow old we'll become something of an aberration. I already feel disenfranchised from the rest of the world.
At night I dream of ... being back at school, having already had my career to date. I have a physics exam to sit and have done no revision whatsoever and am absolutely petrified that I will be exposed as an idiot.
What I see when I look in the mirror ... are lines starting to appear. But then, when I see friends from school I think they've all grown old and I've stayed the same.
My favourite item of clothing ... is a pair of Prada boots: fancy and expensive, a cross between biker and cowboy boots. Women make nice comments when I wear them.
I drive ... several cars: a Mercedes estate and a Porsche 911, among them.
My house is ... big and friendly.
My favourite work of art ... I like the transience of Klimt paintings. I look at the women in them and think: they're dead now.
My favourite building ... is Manchester Town Hall: a symbol of the golden age of the industrial revolution, and a reminder of when it was OK to be bold and optimistic.
A book that changed me ... 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' by William Blake. It made me realise that being anti-establishment could be something spiritual.
Movie heaven ... 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' followed by 'Harold and Maude', lying on my sofa propped up with cushions. With a nice cup of tea and maybe a bar of chocolate.
The last album I bought ... was a Talking Heads compilation. I don't like new bands. I don't want to be one of those pathetic old men in their forties who knows exactly what 18-year-olds are into. All new music's crap. I stopped listening to it in the Nineties.
My secret crush ... is Audrey Tautou.
My greatest regret ... is not having gone travelling around Europe. I was too ambitious to take a gap year. I always think that one day, when I have a spare year, I'll go travelling on my own. But it won't happen now.
My real-life villain ... is anyone who writes for the 'Daily Mail'.
The person who really makes me laugh ... is Peter Baynham, who used to write for Alan Partridge, and who wrote 'Borat'. He's an odd, funny man.
The last time I cried ... was last week, reading 'The Lost Child of Philomena Lee' by Martin Sixsmith.
My five-year plan ... I don't have plans. I used to have them but I don't any more.
What's the point?... A very good question.
My life in six words ... rewarding, liberating, frustrating, interesting, consuming: adventure.
A life in brief
Steve Coogan was born in Manchester on 14 October 1965. He first made his name as the spoof radio and TV presenter Alan Partridge. He is now a multi-award-winning comedian, and has starred in numerous Hollywood films. He has one daughter and lives in Brighton with his family. 'Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters Live on DVD' is available now, £19.99
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