You meet every different kind of possible person from different ethnic and cultural background, and after you while, you realise it's all just people, isn't it?

My enthusiasm for L.A. stems from my father, who was a lecturer in American literature at the University of Birmingham. Through his work, our family did several house swaps with L.A. families. It was a dreadfully daring thing to do in the early 1980s; there was no Internet, so you had no idea of what you were getting into.

Initially, the best thing about being in L.A. was the girls - they loved me. It was like being a pop star.

I go back to L.A. as often as I can, and even if I'm there on business, I always add on a few extra days for pleasure.

L.A.'s hippies are actually quite scary - more like Hell's Angels than the Haight-Ashbury hippies of San Francisco.

Much as I respect Russell Brand's point of view, I'm in the opposite camp to him about voting. I think it's enormously important to engage with the electoral process.

Everything in politics is so stage-managed.

I adored 'Drop the Dead Donkey.' That show defined Channel 4 at the time; it was so inventive and off the leash.

I can be indecisive about things - and the less important something is, the more indecisive I am.

I'm obsessed with coffee.

Life is a mystery: you've just got to go with it.

Probably one of the reasons I became a comedian is that you get a chance to control when people laugh at you.

I work out in the Caribbean for half the year, playing a detective who's really into science. Anybody who knows me will tell you that's a dream come true. But it's tough for my family. We only get to see each other every two and a half to three weeks.

That was one of the amazing things about Doctor Who. Considering it is such an enormous charabanc, a centerpiece of international TV, it feels incredibly small when you are actually involved in it. It is very intimate, very small; it feels like a few people messing about with a camera.

I have always played a slightly ineffectual, bumbly, nice guy.

It was only in the second year of my Ph.D. that I started acting. I wasn't in school plays or anything; I was in bands, but I wasn't cool. There's no such thing as a cool physics person, is there?

All men in their 40s want to be in rock bands, and I reserve the right to be in a pub band at some point.

One of the saddest things I've ever done is download 'I'm A Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus and play along with it with my headphones on. Oh, God. If you were to walk in and see me do that, you would really worry for me.

I'd like to have a neck. Everyone else has a neck, but I never got one; I don't know what happened. I'm not asking for much: just some sort of separation between my head and my body would be great.

My kids are blissfully unaware of anything I do. I asked my four-year-old, Harrison, what I did, and he said, 'You're an electrician.' He must have seen me changing a lightbulb.

We all know to eat green vegetables and oily fish, but who does that? I'll have a cake, thanks.

Prostate cancer has taken a lot from me. First it took my grandfather and then my dad.

I love the basic comedy of growing a moustache.

I think poshness is very funny! But I think it's also delightful. There's something wonderful and very innocent about it, particularly with the Edwardians.

It's great to do stuff that 'gets you out of the house' in a way - that gets you to meet other people!

You need to take a little break sometimes. Then, hopefully, you get some more lead in your pencil, and you're raring to go again!

I took my son to an exhibition about inventing things, and he was so inspired he started collecting toilet rolls and empty bottles for his own 'inventions.'

I used to go badger-watching as a boy, and it's brilliant fun - they're incredibly active animals, and the cubs are very funny to watch.

Our annual school physics trip was always to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, as it's such a good example of Newtonian physics. You can learn about centrifugal force and Newton's first law from the roller coasters, and the Viking long boat is a giant pendulum. It's good for children to understand that science underpins all these brilliant things.

I once played a character called Mr. Jonathan in something called 'Razzle Dazzle.' I was a choreographer of children's pageants. That was something I never imagined doing. It did great in Australia.

Acting and writing are the things I like doing. I don't like presenting that much.

I'm a have-a-go dad. I like babies.

I've never really had a plan. You never know what's going to happen.

I like to think of myself as focused in work, but it probably comes across as obsessive.

I don't think you get a lot of comedians who are homeopaths. Comedy is essentially about not being hoodwinked.

I did play a romantic part once - Orsino in 'Twelfth Night.'

As with anything that involves emotional pain, comedy isn't too far behind. There's that element of no matter how painful something is - as long as it is not you that is going through it - it can be funny.

As an actor, it's good to try to do new things, I think.

As a committed Whovian, I cannot believe my luck in joining the Twelfth Doctor for one of his inaugural adventures. My only worry is that they'll make me leave the set when I'm not filming.

I'm not afraid to say it - I'm proud to be from a nation that wears its heart on its sleeve and isn't scared to show its feelings.

Oh, I assure you, science is anything but boring.

Galactic plankton is undoubtedly out there, but it's statistically highly likely there's also another intelligent civilisation out there somewhere. Unfortunately, the distances and time differences are so great, communication might remain impossible.

Science was always a passion, but I also loved 'Monty Python' and 'The Young Ones,' and I discovered the Footlights comedy club at university, where a lot of those people got their start. I had a go and loved it immediately. After that, I just couldn't stop writing sketches, and it all took off from there.

Being away from my family for six months a year - even if it was in the beautiful surroundings of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean - was just too hard.

The one thing that makes me laugh about the phrase 'the worst week of my life' is that nobody actually uses that phrase when something really bad happens.

I live a pretty sedentary life, usually. I'm not an action man at all.

I'd probably be one of these terribly over-protective parents whose children become a neurotic wreck because they've never been exposed to real life.

People think I'm Rob Brydon a lot.

You can reveal yourself on stage in a way that you can't on TV. If you drop a character on TV, it's death. Each character has to be ruthlessly, faultlessly played. But live, you can hint at what's going on behind. You can let the audience in a bit and go off the script.

I'm prepared to try to talk to a very beautiful girl. I learned a fantastic secret, which is that the most beautiful woman in the room is not being spoken to because she's too intimidating. They're not looking for somebody beautiful; they're looking for somebody to amuse them.