If you're an up-and-coming star, and you want to do well, then a show like 'The X Factor' is really important.

The most influential person in my life had been George Michael. He was very important to me and was one of my musical heroes growing up. Then he became a friend and mentor and someone I'd lean on.

As a working-class boy, golf was never really on my radar, and when I was growing up, Irish football was my sporting passion.

You're just one of the guys who fills a suit, and that's what's drilled into you by the record company and the management - 'You're lucky to have it. Now shut your mouth.' I get where that comes from, but it takes time to shake it off.

One of the reasons we all still read Jane Austen is because her books are about universal things which still matter today - love, money, family. They haven't gone out of fashion, so it's not throwing the baby out with the bathwater to rework her in a contemporary style.

Before our kids start coming home from Iraq in body bags and women and children start dying in Baghdad, I need to know, what did Iraq do to us?

I remember one day my son, our Robert, was looking at me on the settee and looking at me on the television, and then all of a sudden he said: 'Why don't you bring that pretty mummy home with you?' And I thought: 'Oh dear, I'm going to have to dress up at home now as well!'

My father, who is now in Heaven, was a supporter of La U, and I think the truth is that a lot of my family would like me to end up there. My dad was the pillar of the family, and sometimes people do things for their family as well.