I'll never forget my interview with Barry Humphries - one of the oddest I've ever done. He insisted that for half the time he appeared as Dame Edna. So I interviewed the real Barry Humphries in a suit and tie, and then I interviewed Edna in full fig in her dressing room, where she criticised Barry mercilessly.

Melvyn Bragg

History is too often the refuge of the tidy-minded, making neat patterns when the dust has settled.

Melvyn Bragg

neat patterns dust

There's nothing the British like better than a bloke who comes from nowhere, makes it, and then gets clobbered.

Melvyn Bragg

blokes british

To hear the Treorchy Male Choir in full throat is one of the great joys of choral music.

Melvyn Bragg

choir males joy

Writing novels is a way of living alternative lives.

Melvyn Bragg

alternatives writing love

When anybody tells you something about writing, somebody will tell you something completely different and they will also be right

Melvyn Bragg

different writing

Occasionally now I feel a wang that goes in my head - once you've got it you've got it. The [illness] was quite severe, leaving me deeply unhappy and frightened.

Melvyn Bragg

mental-illness leaving unhappy

More people now work in the arts than the steel, coal and car industries combined.

Melvyn Bragg

car people art

Few places on earth have been as affectionately alchemised into literature as the Lake District.

Melvyn Bragg

lake places literature earth

Well, I don't think I'm good-looking... I know people who are good-looking, and I'm not good-looking.

Melvyn Bragg

good-looking think know people

Class doesn't create culture anymore.

Melvyn Bragg

anymore create class culture

I just got fed up with the Protestantism that I'd been brought up with being rubbed out, disregarded. There's an awful lot of frailty and doubt about it, which I understand and share, but there are certain things you just have to acknowledge.

Melvyn Bragg

things understand you doubt

You ask 20 of your friends how English and American democracy came about. None of them would say that Anglicanism or Protestantism had anything to do with it. But it was crucial to it!

Melvyn Bragg

your you friends democracy

I don't feel like I'm slowing down.

Melvyn Bragg

down feel like slowing

My life is not very different from what it was 20 years ago. In fact, my career hasn't changed much since I was 22.

Melvyn Bragg

my-life career different life

I was brought up in a strong working-class community by working-class parents and relations until I was 18, and that's what I really am. Now all sorts of things have been added, but that's what I am.

Melvyn Bragg

i-am parents community strong

I decided years ago that I am just unfashionable.

Melvyn Bragg

i-am just years-ago years

I'm not a fan of the working class being mocked, including by some of our famous writers - even those who came from it.

Melvyn Bragg

famous some being class

I've been making arts programmes for almost 50 years, and every day, I can't believe my luck.

Melvyn Bragg

every-day day luck believe

Too old at 72? Careful. Ageism is out. We'll have the law on you!

Melvyn Bragg

old out you law

The best of pop in our country is among the best of the arts that we do. And Britain does the arts as well as, and sometimes better than, anybody else on the planet.

Melvyn Bragg

better best sometimes country