The 5-Minute Interview: Suggs, Madness singer and radio DJ

'There are 15,000 ways to spend an evening and I enjoy them all'

Suggs, 46, has a show on Virgin Radio on weekdays from 2pm and hosts 'Suggs Party Classics' on weekends.

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be ...

Going to see my mother who lives around the corner. She had her handbag stolen at the weekend so I'm going to reassure her.

A word I use far too often is ...

"Yes". I keep forgetting to put the word "no" in occasionally.

I wish people would take more notice of ...

Other people. I always remember there was a guy sitting in the pub once and he had a scar on his face and I asked how he got it and he said "From talking when I should have been listening". People would learn a lot more if they just listened to each other.

The most surprising thing that happened to me ...

I've led such a fortuitous life. I never thought I'd be doing any of the things I do when I was at school: radio shows, making television programmes, recording songs with my mates - and I have a nice family, too.

A common misperception of me is ...

That I'm not as interesting and witty as I appear.

I'm not a politician but ...

I wouldn't want to be one. It's a very complicated job and pretty thankless and I think trying to work out how you could improve the lives of this disparate nation would prove almost impossible.

I'm good at ...

Talking rubbish. I do it for a living. And listening to other people.

But I'm very bad at ...

DIY. I've never been very technical.

The ideal night out is ...

Many and diverse. There are 15,000 ways to spend an evening and I enjoy them all.

In moments of weakness I...

Swoon.

In a truer life, I'd have ...

Before I got involved in the entertainment industry I had a string of jobs. I worked as a painter, decorator and landscape gardener. I worked in a butchers for a while, but I always had a harkening to do something creative.

So I don't know how it would have manifested itself if I hadn't bumped into Madness.

Elisa Bray