UR TV CAST

Presumably, then, this is all part of his schtick, to make people like him, to make people relate.”No, not at all Honestly,” he insists. “I think the root of my problem is that I don’t actually like people.” What, all of them? “Pretty much, yes. They’re hard work, don’t you think? But then, perhaps I’m biased TV hasn’t done me very many favours in that respect. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have come up to me in the street to punch me or simply call me obscene names.

Despite protestations that a one-on-one conversation makes him squirm, he talks with extreme ease and a voluble confidence, and is hugely engaging. I’ve created a persona, a TV character, much like Ricky Gervais has, but with me people don’t seem to think it’s acting. They think I’m an arrogant tit in real life when the thing is, I’m not. Away from the camera, I’m completely different.”He tells me, with a little V of intensity between his eyebrows, that he is rather shy, and finds talking to me incredibly daunting. “It’s not that you’re intimidating or anything but, well, I do feel intimidated nevertheless.”The trouble with Lee, and his perennial smirk, is that you never know whether to take him seriously. I lose jobs, I get fired, I do terrible satellite TV, and then I can’t even get arrested.” He coughs up another low laugh. “I seem to have fallen out of favour with Channel 4 of late, and Jimmy Carr is getting all the offers I would have got a couple of years ago.

It’s almost funny, isn’t it?”His pronounced ability to irritate aside, it is difficult not to pity the poor man. There is a school of thought that suggests that Iain Lee is actually one of our brighter TV stars. Tall, gaunt and, shall we say, “distinctive-looking”, he is a little bit Chris Evans, a little bit Jonathan Ross: witty, razor sharp and possessed of a Tourette-like compulsion to be cheeky, rude and downright obnoxious at any given opportunity. Perhaps consequently, then, the people who hate him – and these include critics, celebrities, occasionally even co-hosts – hate him with a passion.”I seem to prompt extreme reactions, it’s true,” he agrees, “but I do have to say I’m rather misunderstood. He may well be spelling out the word ANXIETY.
“I start off presenting what turns out to be the most talked-about show of my career when I’m – what? – 22, 23, convinced it’s the beginning of great things, but then it’s all steadily downhill from there.

As he charts his downward trajectory, the 31-year-old avoids all eye contact, instead drawing concentric circles on the table in front of him with an outstretched finger. This is not something he is particularly proud of, he says, it’s just the way things have turned out. Amstrad rose 3p to 175.5p on whispers the electronics group will soon post a solid set of results. Sales of its set-top-boxes and e-mailer product are said to have been strong..