FIRST PERSON: Newport actor, Kieron Self

I WILL always remember walking around the Edinburgh Festival in a pink boiler suit, trying to get people to come to a masonic lodge.

We had two reviews which stood out: “avoid at all costs” and “pointless, puerile and derivative”.

I carry them in my wallet to get some perspective.

I’m from Newport, born in the Royal Gwent, and I lived in the St Julian’s area. I went to St Julian’s Comprehensive and from there went to Oxford University, where I studied English for three years. After that I did a one-year postgraduate course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and have been ducking and diving ever since.

I was lucky because after college I did a show with a theatre company called Mappa Mundi. The show was Anthony and Cleopatra and since then I have been one of the core members. I’ve played Hamlet and Henry V, classical parts, and gone on tours ofWales, and they are a great bunch of friends.

That’s also where I met my wife, Lynne Seymour. I knew her as a friend first but we were acting in Hamlet together, me playing Hamlet and she was playing Ophelia, and we got together. We have been married for 14 years and have twins.

We actually got married at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff. We had a ceremony on the stage and people sang songs. It sounds lovey but really we got it quite cheap!

With Shakespeare, it’s such a different style of acting from what is done now, it’s slightly heightened and there’s always something to find (in a character), even after a long run.

Mappa Mundi tries to make Shakespeare as accessible as possible for a modern audience, not being bored silly in school. When we started we wanted to do Shakespeare that we would want to see, even if that means cutting more minor characters to make the story clearer.

The last play I did with Mappa Mundi was Dangerous Liaisons, where I got to play a bit of a cad.

Most people think of me as Roger Bailey on My Family, so it is nice to play those sorts of characters as well, rather than being pigeonholed into being a comedy idiot... which is, of course, what I’mdoing now in panto!

I never did panto until last year and I was very, very nervous. Once you get a few shows under your belt it is fun.

There is also a rich history associated with it and it’s a real skill.

I wasn’t part of youth theatre, I did A-level drama and decided I quite liked it.

I got the opportunity to apply for Oxford and I got in, so I had lots of opportunities to do things there.

I was part of the Oxford Review, which is not as trendy as Cambridge Footlights. We did an outdoor show in College Gardens, a Winnie the Pooh musical – all sorts. I was very lucky to be in that environment and work with people like Sally Phillips and Emily Mortimer, all in the same melting-pot.

After university I did a year at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where I met Giles New and a good bunch of people. It’s never been a ‘thing’ that I didn’t do youth theatre.

The stand-up was never proper standup, it was more character stuff, still acting really. I can’t stand up and be myself, I need something to hide behind.

It wasn’t girlfriend or mother-in-law humour either, it was more Steve Martin, more silly, absurd and character- based.

I also write. I started writing while at Oxford, comedy sketches to do at the Comedy Cellar, then made radio plays with Giles New.

I co-wrote a radio sketch show for RadioWales called My Dog’s Got No Nose which turned into Lucky Bag, which ran for four series between 1999 and 2003.

The television work came about after Dewi Humphreys, who directed Lucky Bag, thought of me. I auditioned and did one episode, and thought that would be it. But they asked me back and it became a running character. I kept thinking, ‘really?’ That was great, I fitted in with everybody there. It was one of those things, right time, right place.

Then I went on to High Hopes because Gareth Gwenlan directed Lucky Bag as well. They were both studio-based sitcoms with a live audience, a middle ground between television and theatrics.

They were both fairly extreme characters. There were a few moments of pathos we managed to fit in, and they were good fun to play. It was nice to mix that up with doing more serious stuff with Mappa Mundi.

My Family was on TV for seven years.

Every time we finished a series it was going to be the last, but luckily it came back seven times, being watched by millions. But I still don’t get recognised, only now and again. I don’t wear my dentist gear out.

I have lived in Cardiff for a long time but people don’t expect me to live there, they think everyone lives in London. A woman came up to us once and said I looked like the bloke off My Family, only thinner, which I was happy with!

Now it has come to an end, that won’t last long. It’s a bit silly, fame. I went to the National Television Awards with My Family and we won one, live from the Albert Hall, and I ended up on stage thanking people. That felt surreal.

Kris Marshall, who was also on the show, hadn’t thanked anybody, so I thought “I’ve got to thank people”.

They had already started playing the music for us to leave the stage. I can’t believe I did that now.

My parents still live in Newport and they are incredibly supportive and always have been. They have always said: “Whatever you’re happy doing, that’s what we’ll support.”

I’mthe classic example of an only child, although my mum is one of four and my dad one of 12.

Most of the family are from Newbridge and my uncle Rex is quite well known there, he used to lead parades with goats and keep a donkey in the garden.

We went on a trip to Bath once and bumped into him playing the spoons.

Maybe it’s from him that I got some sort of theatrical gene.

In Cardiff there is a lot more going on now, the amount of TV which is filmed there is staggering, although that’s not always to the benefit of Welsh actors.

There’s a lot of new writing, and people are still putting £10 into the kitty and putting on a grassroots show and that’s great. Multimedia helps as well. But you’ve got all these venues being given Lottery grants for refurbishment and no product to put in there. If companies can’t afford to do a tour but there are all these great venues then it’s pointless doing these venues up. It’s very tricky; in economic difficulties the arts always suffer.

Writing gives you something to do if you’re not acting. I’ve written for That Mitchell andWebb Look, Shaun the Sheep and I’mworking on a feature film with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie called The Canterville Ghost, and funding is nearly there.

I’ve developed several projects with Disney, including Groove High, and have written several animations – but I’ve also spent two years on projects before which have come to nothing.

Recently I entered a sitcom called The Gatekeeper, starring Adrian Scarborough and Patrick Baladi into the BBC Salford Sitcom Festival. Six pilots get entered, two each for channels one, two and three, and it is performed in front of an audience. Then some may get commissioned. It went well and the cast were great. But you have to swing with the punches. Giles and I always say “we’ll believe it when we’ve been given some money!”

On the horizon I have more writing for another animation project which is very much in the beginnings of development and up in the air – you take a big gulp and hope for the best. I’ll have a week’s holiday post-panto.

I’ve been self-employed since 1993 and you’re never sure where the next pay cheque is coming from. But I don’t think I could do a proper nine to five.

My wife also runs a craft and wool shop called Calon Yarn, near Victoria Park in Canton, Cardiff. I’mnot super up on knitting techniques but I help out there from time to time. We’ve just put up the Christmas decorations in the shop, but not at home, it’s too early.

When we filmed the My Family Christmas specials sometimes they would be filmed the previous January, which was bizarre.

I’m 41, it doesn’t feel like it, though.

Age doesn’t seem to matter, it’s just a bit odd working with people who were born when you were finishing university!