Hugh Dennis

Your father's actually a bishop - what was that like growing up?

Well he wasn't actually a bishop, he was a just a straight forward plain old vicar when I was growing up. He didn't get to bishop status until I was 18. It was kind of fun.

I'm sure there's a connection between what I do now and what he did - both of us dress up and stand in front of lots of people. There's a causal link between him being a priest and me being a comedian.

And you never considered following in his footsteps?

No, not really. Not at all in fact.

You and Steve Punt have been making us chuckle for years - how did you hook up?

We were at uni together, and I think we met after he came to a comedy show I was in at the end of the second year. There was nothing remarkable about our meeting at all. We just started chatting. We only became a double act because there were only three of us in the comedy club who wanted to carry on. That was me and Steve and Nick Hancock. But Nick had to finish his teacher training so it just left Steve and I. It would never have happened otherwise.

Have you ever come to blows?

No. Not at all actually. We argue, but only about jokes. About what's funniest.

What was your big breakthrough?

There's been several really. Steve and I were originally spotted by Jasper Carrot when he came down to the Comedy Store one night and asked to do his show. Then I suppose the series Outnumbered was a break. I only got that because I went on a veterans football tournament with the guy who writes it, Andy Hamilton.

But my biggest break has to be meeting my wife, who I met when I was doing the voiceover of a talking fromage frais. She worked in the sound studio.

Is it true you've been in every episode of Mock the Week?

Yeah. So have Frankie and Dara. The bit I love about the show more than any other is the bit right at the end. The 'stories we'd like to see' on the news segment, simply because it involves walking, so you can stay fit, and comedy.

Who do you prefer Frankie Boyle or Dara O'Briain?

Ooh you can't ask that kind of question! I like them equally. We actually all get on very well.

You cycled a mountain stage of the 2007 and 2008 Tour de France. Are you mad?

A little. I used to run a lot and then it began to hurt too much so I decided to start cycling. And then a mate suggested the Tour de France - 200km almost straight up a hill and you have to do it within 12 hours. And I thought yes, that's the kind of thing I should be doing. I think it was a kind of midlife crisis actually more than anything. But it's an easy midlife crisis; its over within 12 hours and at the end of it you realise you're no longer an alpha male and just get on with the rest of your life. That's the way I look at it.

What's the wittiest thing you've ever seen or heard?

There was this spat between MP Keith Vaz and Boris Johnson about whether Boris had sworn at Keith in a telephone conversation. Keith produced a transcript of this phone chat in which he said Boris had used the F word 12 times. Boris put out this statement saying, "I don't believe this to be true. I didn't use the F word 12 times, I used it only 4 times and I don't believe the transcript to be true as I also called Mr Vaz a cockamaniac". I thought that was a fantastic thing to say.