He and Adele were such good friends that she stayed in his spare room in 2011 when she was going through a breakup. Changing Ends is based on Carr’s life growing up as a gay teenager in 1980s Northampton, where his father, Graham, was manager of the local football team.

He further asserted that withdrawal symptoms are actually created by doubt and fear in the mind of the ex-smoker, and therefore that stopping smoking is not as traumatic as is commonly assumed, if that doubt and fear can be removed.McIndoe directed operations, re-constructing his patients and inspired them to rebuild their own lives. However I must admit I was secretly surprised, while not the nest written autobiography I have read.

The book is really well written and I found it surprisingly inspiring – which is why I would recommend it to anyone, not just Alan Carr fans – you might not appreciate the humour, but I think you’ll find some inspiration – it’s not exactly a rags to riches story, but even if you get knocked down – you gotta get back up. He is often self effacing and not afraid to talk about the terrible attack of anxiety he gets before shows. Carr's voice certainly came through in the text and it was easy to imagine the comedian was actually saying those words as you read them. There was the last Chatty Man show after which he accosted Harrison Ford, who was in the corridor on his way to the Jonathan Ross show. However, it wasn't the hypnotherapy itself that enabled him to stop – "I succeeded in spite of and not because of that visit" and "I lit up the moment I left the clinic and made my way home.

I adore Alan's turn of phrase and find him so natural and quick as both interviewer and interviewee. Yes, you are going to find guts, a fair bit of cheek, maybe even a little bit of gristle, but hopefully, you'll find a whole lot of heart. As a comedian, Carr’s DNA is 60% Williams, with dollops of a softer camp reminiscent of Frankie Howerd, Julian Clary, Larry Grayson and Dale Winton. His mother, Christine (Nancy Sullivan), supports him all the way, but he has a more complicated relationship with his father, Graham (Shaun Dooley), a gruff man’s man who manages Northampton Town football club – languishing at the bottom of the fourth division. From beginning to end I found myself laughing, Alan has a way with words that makes you feel like you are having a chat with a friend.

It’s surely been to his advantage as a comic that he can emphasise with people living such lives – even if he was determined not to follow that path himself. Born in Weymouth, Carr spent most of his childhood in Northampton, where his father, a former player and scout became manager of the local football club and remains an associate director. At this point the reader is introduced quickly to Carr’s style and that is one of refreshing truthfulness, but also a lightness of touch. I was on the bus, on the way to work, when I couldn't help but laugh myself silly over a situation being described. With his tongue-in-cheek, end of pier humour that made him famous, Alan describes an ordinary life in bursts of technicolour.Recounting Carr's sexual awakenings, his daily battle with bullies and navigating the highs and lows of fourth division football, Changing Ends is "about school and family, Kevin Keegan and George Michael, and figuring out who you are when your family are Match Of The Day and you're a bit Miss Marple". There was the 4am police statement he has no memory of signing outside a McDonald’s in Liverpool after Elliott, his tour manager, had been severely beaten by a gang, leaving him with a shattered leg. The couple announced their separation in January 2022 following Drayton's conviction for drink-driving. Carr previously said that the sitcom would be realistic, saying: ‘This is about a young boy on the cusp of puberty starting his journey in this very masculine world of lower league football.

Among his interviewees were Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Adele, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Bette Midler, Mariah Carey, Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus. World No Tobacco Day, 31st May: Allen Carr's Easyway Celebrates Helping More Than 50 Million Smokers Worldwide" (Press release). They were an indestructible unit – crucial, Carr believes, to his confidence, thick skin and his love of storytelling; his mother was a great raconteur. Instead, it is essentially a brisk, chatty account of his life up to the point where he was offered the position on the Friday Night Project job, and is as often abut his social circle and flatmates as it is about his disdain for his dead-end jobs. Each gets to run the show by their own rules, devising topics and queries based on their life, whims, fancies and past glories.I remember telling my mum about the time I stopped that woman from having a diamond encrusted necklace stolen and she'd say 'No Alan, that was Poirot. I found a lot of things out about good old Alan and the stand-up comedy world that I was not really into before, and maybe I will not be again, but not out of Alan's book (it is simply not my thing for long, I am more a comedy-drama girl myself).