Cultural Life: Rhod Gilbert, comedian

(PA)

Comedy: I haven't seen much since I work evenings most of the time. At the Edinburgh Festival I saw a friend of mine, Greg Davies, whose show was wonderful, and also my eternal favourite, Paul Foot. He's a comedy genius, one of the funniest things I've seen. Sublime, original and brilliant.

Books: I have spells of reading a lot and then I'll struggle with one book for six months. I'm reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole at the moment. I've started it about four times this year, but I absolutely love it. The main character, Ignatius J Reilly, reminds me of the baby in "Family Guy". He's hilarious.

Films: I've watched a few Tarantino films recently. I really enjoyed "True Romance". I'm not a fan of film violence as a rule but I'm on tour at the moment, living in the back of a van, and my driver is into that kind of stuff. The other night I watched "Detour", an old black- and-white short film, which had me shouting at the screen in frustration.

Television: I use TV in a very strange way. For me it's a way of completely switching off, like a screen-saver, and my last screen-saver of choice was "The Apprentice". I find it hilarious that people think this is the best way to recruit someone for a potential six-figure salaried job. It's great TV to shout at. The level of delusion is phenomenal.

Music: I've been rediscovering AC/DC a bit lately. I was doing my radio show recently with a terrible hangover and I played "Whole Lotta Rosie" as my first track. By the end of the song I was raring to go. It was like having an enormous intravenous tonic injected straight into my groin.

'Rhod Gilbert and the Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst' is out on DVD now. For details of his tour go to www.rhodgilbertcomedian.com