I think with Sky and BBC Three and Channel 4, there are some great television platforms, and the stand-up movement in this country is phenomenal. Its like rock'n'roll here. Britain's a funny place and there's a lot of funny people coming out of there and a lot of people are finding mediums to express themselves.

Brendan Coyle

Categorized in : Thinking Country Rocks

I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation.

Brendan Coyle

situation lying thinking

I had to escape the destruction of my fathers bankruptcy and all that difficulty.

Brendan Coyle

difficulty destruction father

The qualities I am looking for in Miss Right are intelligence and humour.

Brendan Coyle

humour quality missing

I took a gamble in becoming an actor and my dream job has been realised.

Brendan Coyle

actors dream jobs

I can pretty much say all of us know when 'Downton' is going to end. This is a show with a finite life.

Brendan Coyle

finite ends shows

You cant be a casual observer of something humorous - you have to engage, you have to find it funny for the relationship between actor and audience to work.

Brendan Coyle

casual actors humorous

It's not something that's at the forefront of my mind, but I think I'd regret it if I didn't have children.

Brendan Coyle

regret children thinking

You get a lot of people requesting photographs but I tend to keep myself to myself, pull my cap down.

Brendan Coyle

caps photograph people

I'm going to be 50 soon. I'm single, I'm looking for something meaningful. By the time you've been single for quite a long time, you can get quite specific about what you can and can't put up with.

Brendan Coyle

long-time meaningful long

I left school at 16 but I wish I'd gone to university - I think I would have studied English literature. I had a knack for that. But I don't think you have the kind of wisdom at 16 to make that decision.

Brendan Coyle

decision school thinking

I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation. I see myself as a performer and that applies to a Greek drama or a modern comedy.

Brendan Coyle

drama lying thinking

I'm single, I'm looking for something meaningful.

Brendan Coyle

meaningful

I'm more rooted in new plays and new writing.

Brendan Coyle

more new rooted writing

Acting meant so much to me.

Brendan Coyle

meant much me acting

If this TV success had come in my twenties and I'd become a heart-throb, I would have been very stupid. I would have got into a lot of situations that I really wished I hadn't.

Brendan Coyle

come become stupid success

I'd seen a play of 'Richard III' in Coventry when I was 15, which sowed the seeds that you could act for a living.

Brendan Coyle

you living seeds play

Sometimes I think I missed out on things like travelling. I'd have been terrified of missing an audition. I didn't start a family because that's not something I take lightly. Acting meant so much to me.

Brendan Coyle

think me family sometimes

When I was in my 30s, I was at the end of a long-term relationship and going through a very hard time. I'd had about 15 different addresses and a series of relationships. I thought, 'It's time to have a look at yourself.'

Brendan Coyle

yourself look time relationship

I would have loved to have been a footballer like my great uncle Matt Busby, but I knew quite early on that I wasn't going to make the grade. Luckily I was told by the age of 13 that I wasn't good enough. That's not a bad thing. You see this 'X Factor' generation of kids now who don't accept that they're not good enough.

Brendan Coyle

great good you age

My dad was a master butcher and I trained to be a butcher when I left school. I didn't enjoy it at the time but I love cooking now, so perhaps I would have been a chef.

Brendan Coyle

cooking time love chef