This much I know: Alexander Armstrong

When you say something funny to your friend you want them to cry with laughter. When your business is comedy, they say: "Hmm, is that BBC1, though?" I sometimes have days where my eyes almost water with self-consciousness. I was quite an odd child. We grew up in the middle of nowhere in Northumberland – it was lovely, idyllic, but we had remarkably little contact with other people. I would love to think I'd inherited my father's patience. He's a man who achieves a great deal through gentleness. I'm appalled by Gordon Brown. I've never seen such terrible short-termism and posturing. I'm afraid I'm quite looking forward to some sort of change. How would people describe me? I think indulgent, in the good and the bad sense. I grew up the son of the village doctor, so my father was quite well known. At home in Northumberland, frankly Dad is the famous one. I enjoyed playing David Cameron in The Trial of Tony Blair – there was quite a lot of Lycra involved. I've always had a very strong family, that encouragement – the hand at one's back. I tend to get very enthusiastic about things. One of my wife's jobs is to temper my more wildly optimistic ambitions. I'm not very religious, but having reached middle age I rather enjoy the quiet and the contemplation of spending an hour in an old building. I'm a delightful drunk. This is, of course, highly subjective, but I love to think I'm hilarious, outgoing, a tremendously good egg. In reality I'm probably quite boring. I'm never happier than in the morning – opening curtains, getting children up. When I was little I wanted to be a conductor. I knew there was a man in a smart coat who waved his arms around at the opera and I thought: "There's the job for me." As a parent who's shelled out for your child's education, watched them go to a good university, when they then say: "I would like to go into comedy" you'd think: "Really? Do you want to have another look at that career in law?" Alexander Armstrong presents Pointless on BBC2