Nigel Planer: You ask the questions

(Such as: so, Nigel Planer, at heart are you really just an old hippie like Neil of The Young Ones? And what's the most humiliating acting job you've ever had?)

The actor Nigel Planer was born in Westminster hospital, London, in 1953. He was educated at Westminster School and then Sussex University, which he dropped out of in 1974 to go to Lamda. His career in comedy began in 1976 with a tour of a comedy rock show called Rank, with fellow student Peter Richardson. Planer became a regular at the Comedy Store in 1979, and a year later founded the influential Comic Strip Club with Richardson, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson and Alexei Sayle. His television debut came in 1981 on the stand-up show Boom Boom, Out Go the Lights, but fame arrived a year later in the role of Neil, the hippie no-hoper, in the cult 1980s comedy The Young Ones.

Planer's CV stretches from numerous television appearances (The Comic Strip Presents, The Grimleys, Shine On, Harvey Moon), through film (Yellowbeard, Wind in the Willows, The Land Girls and Eat the Rich), and theatre (Feelgood and Chicago). Planer has also written two novels: The Right Man and Faking It. In 1990, he wrote and narrated the revival of The Magic Roundabout and narrates most of the Terry Pratchett Discworld audio books. Planer lives with his second wife, the actor and writer Frankie Park, in West London. They have one child together and a boy each from previous marriages.

I've heard you've worked with every Python. Any memorable moments?

Simon Larkin, by e-mail

Most memorably I worked on the film Yellowbeard with several Pythons filmed in Mexico. The greatest privilege, however, was that almost all of my scenes were with Peter Cook, who I got to know a little on and off the set. He really was everything one would hope that Peter Cook would be.

Is it true you prefer writing now to acting? If so, why? And what do you do in your spare time?

Sarah Bishop, Woking

No, it's not true that I prefer writing; it's more a question of trying to juggle time. In a perfect world, the extrovert nature of showbiz should provide a healthy antidote to the paranoid isolation of writing. In reality, it's a mad scramble to get either done.

Did you enjoy making your splendid recordings of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, and which was your favourite character? How did you manage to maintain all the different accents?

Heather Kerr, by e-mail

Yes. My favourite character was the policeman. He's a very deadpan TV detective, a very sardonic downbeat character. There were about 30 or 40 different characters in each book and some of them recur. I used to write a cast list for each book, and then, by the side, I'd write "high pitched John Le Mesurier" or "Stephen Fry with a lisp". I came a cropper a few times. In one of the first books, there is a character called Sergeant Colon – it was only a small part, only about five lines, and as my Irish accent isn't very strong, I thought I'd do him. He then appears in the next 15 books and lots of conversation between Scots and Welsh end up somewhere between Land's End and Geordie.

What inspired the two male extremes – the herbal-tea drinking feminist ponce Oliver and the lecherous chain-smoking drunk Barry – in your novel Faking It?

P Coutts, Stirling

Basically, I wanted to have two exaggerated sides of myself: the new man versus the politically incorrect man, which is going on inside most men's heads at the moment. It was inspired by the episode of After Dark when Oliver Reed went on with Kate Millett and a group of rape counsellors. He drank a load of red wine, tried to snog Millett, fell off the back of the sofa and went for a piss. He was completely out of order, but one couldn't help feeling that he had more life in him than all the others. It was one of the most terrible and tragic things, but it was also one of the funniest and most exciting night of TV I've seen. That was the inspiration for creating these two sides of the gender argument.

What's the most humiliating acting job you've ever done?

TR Harper, York

For some reason, they're all humiliating. I always seem to be the one who gets the frying pan on the head or the profiteroles down the trousers. Even when I did Shakespeare in Regent's Park I ended up de-bagged and fragged, with my head pushed down to the bottom of a scummy Jacuzzi.

Are there a finite number of jokes in the world?

Angus Doyle, by e-mail

They do say there are only three jokes in the world, but that's rubbish – there are millions. On the day my mum died, I had to play a comedy undertaker. I found it very funny, watching the rest of the cast trying to be deeply sensitive and read the script without laughing.

Of all the things you have done, what are you most proud of?

Charley di Renzo, Canterbury

Having the guts to go out as a poet on tour with Henry Normal and read my poetry. I found out that I could still be funny without putting on a performance.

I've heard you are involved with Families Need Fathers. What kind of work do they do?

Peter Aylesbury, Cardiff

It's a charity that attempts to keep children of separated parents in contact with the non-resident parent (usually the father) through campaigning and supporting families in times of crisis.

I will always have a special place in my heart for Neil. How do you regard him now?

Paul Phillips, Gloucester

I don't have much to do with him now. I was performing him for about four years, even before the TV series. It's a bit like bringing up a child: when he becomes a teenager, you have to let him go and get on with his own life. The character takes on a life and career of its own, and he's had a far more successful solo career than me. I wish him luck. I didn't do him for about 10 years, but last year I did him for a commercial in Australia. I didn't think I'd be able to remember how to do him, but just bunging on the wig was extraordinary. I was suddenly him. I'm sure it's very bad for the psyche.

What was your most memorable Young Ones moment?

Jessica Robinson, Somerset

The final episode, when we were on the bus just before it goes over the cliff. Rick says, "We are wide-bottomed anarchists", and Neil is playing an electric guitar at last and wearing cool shades. It was that moment of elation, just before disaster.

Who's your all time favourite comedic creation?

MJ Nash, by e-mail

I loved the upper-class couple that Rob Brydon created in Human Remains. The man whose wife suffered from vaginismus – that comic creation was one of the best things since Inspector Clouseau.

How much of Neil is there in you? Are you just an old hippie at heart?

GH Heartley, Milton Keynes

Quite a lot. Yes.

Nigel Planer is touring the UK in 'I, an Actor' from 15 January