I COULD SEE ME NOW

seemed natural to me and it was something I really took to for several years. Then a change happened, whereby I realised that, actually, you could almost try out being a different person, which is when I became involved in a band and the school revue. By then, getting the approval of other kids was more important than getting the approval of the teachers, and performing seemed to be more fun than just academic success.

As well as having no siblings, I grew up with what essentially were four parents, which was a bit of a double whammy. My grandfather was a stonemason and he built this annexe on the end of the house, the idea being that he and my grandmother would hang out in that bit. They had their own kitchen, bathroom, TV and lounge and all that, but of course they spent the whole time in the main bit of the house. I would come out from school and I’d be grilled by them because my dad, who was a local GP, was working, and my mum would often be out doing something. My grandparents were there at the table like inquisitors, asking me about my day.

I now treasure those conversations because I fear that families have become so separate these days. I live in west London [with his wife, Kristin, and their son, 15-year-old Dax], whereas my father still lives in the West Country, where I was brought up. My son doesn’t see my father as much as I saw my grandparents, so I mourn that change in circumstance.

Having kids didn’t occur to me at all for a long time, and when it came about it was something of a surprise. But I quickly realised that being a dad was something I loved. I like the responsibility and organisation that goes with it; it helps you keep your sense of fun as well. What really surprised me about fatherhood was that I don’t find it constricting. I find it tremendously liberating, because after the initial year, when you go into a bit of a daze, you emerge from it and you find that your priorities are clarified for you. Fatherhood illuminates your life in a way that I had not predicted at all.

Interview by Tom Ough

Bill Bailey’s Larks in Transit is at Wyndham’s Theatre until Jan 5, then touring. Limboland is out on DVD and digital download

KEEPING IT SILLYBill Bailey says his musical younger self, left, would have been amused by his job as a crematorium organist