We talk to Rebecca Front about comedy...

Hi Rebecca. You're one of the team captains on Jo Brand's Wall Of Comedy - is it a panel show?

It sort of is, but it's deliberately loose in its format. So the general idea is that we're in Jo Brand's fictional living room to talk about comedy... which is my idea of a perfect night in, incidentally.

There's a sort of loose structure where we get questions posed by people via video - stars from the biggest sitcoms - and then sometimes we get to do parlour game type things: trying on wigs and hats and that kind of thing, which is actually also just a way of sparking off anecdotes and jokes and things.

Really the point of it is just people who work in comedy sitting around and talking about comedy. It's just really nice, and a relaxed show.

It is indeed. What was it like working with your fellow team captain Barry Cryer?

Oh, he's marvellous. I love Barry. I've worked with him before on a radio thing, and he's just a legend. He knows everybody, he's worked with everybody.

He's incredibly modest about it all. He mentions all these people, but in the slightly opposite way to namedropping. He can't help himself because everybody he's worked with is legendary, but he's so modest with it... so a story will just pop up out of nowhere and he'll just sort of say 'I was in the pub one night with Eric Sykes' and you just think 'Oh my God!'

He's a really, really great bloke. I think 'an evening with Barry' should be available on prescription for anyone feeling jaded with life.

Did you learn any new facts from the show then?

I learnt lots of new stories and lots of new jokes. I was going home after recordings and saying to my husband 'you'll never guess what happened when they were filming...', that sort of thing.

The show is full of nice little behind-the-scenes moments and strange stories, and lots of those come from Barry... but also from our brilliant studio guests, who have all worked on a complete array of things.

The series mentions so many great shows. As an actor, which would you most like to have been in?

Oh, tough question. I'd say probably Fawlty Towers, or maybe Dad's Army - they're my favourites. I'd have loved to have been in Fawlty Towers. I don't know what character I'd have been, but perhaps some sort of claustrophobic guest who had to be released from her room or something.

You appear in this show as yourself, something we noticed you've been doing a bit more of recently - with The News Quiz and Have I Got News For You (pictured) too. Is that a conscious career move or something that's just happened?

Sort of a bit of both, in that I - traditionally - was turning things down. Then, after a bit, I thought actually, whenever I have done it, I always really enjoyed it.

I think when you do something like The News Quiz it's always really enjoyable, but then if you don't do it for a few months or a couple of years you think 'oh no, it's suddenly going to be really scary', so I think what I did in the end was just decide that I was going to have a character that I could adopt when I do things like that.

Once I'd done that I felt quite relaxed about doing it. I resisted for a long time, but I always feel much more comfortable if I'm in character, if I'm playing somebody else, and eventually I thought 'well if I just have a character who does panel games then I can do them, relax a bit more and enjoy it'.

So you're saying the Rebecca Front we see on panel shows isn't you?

Well, it's a version of me, but not me. I'd say probably the character most panel game contestants tend to do isn't the full version of themselves, you can't be that un-guarded and that relaxed and that. I have to put on kind of a 'performance', because if I just ramble on in a panel game like I ramble on when I'm chatting to my husband or something, it would really be very un-witty and I'd never be invited back again, so you have to be a version of yourself.

Do you prepare gags in advance of going on panel shows?

Contrary to what people think, they don't usually give you the questions or anything, so I prepare as much as I possibly can. I mean there's a certain amount of common sense because with something like The News Quiz or Have I Got News For You, you know what the big stories of the week are if you've been reading the papers and you kind of know what they're not going to be able to ask you about (because obviously there are certain stories that are so grim and horrible that you just think 'well obviously that's not going to come up in a comedy show') so that narrows it down a lot, and from then on you can turn up with some ideas in the back of your head about 'what shall I say if I'm asked about this, that or whatever'.

So that's what I do really, I do write some gags for myself but not... actually 'writing gags' is phrasing it the wrong way actually, because that suggests they're all completely worded - it's just in the back of my mind I know what my take will be on something.

Acting is still obviously your main focus and we're just in awe of how good your CV is! Is it luck or skill you seem to be in pretty much everything good and nothing bad?

It's a combination of luck and pickiness. So, you're lucky if you get offered anything in the first place because there are so many people out there competing for so few roles so if anything comes in front of me that I like then that's really, really lucky. But beyond that yes I am actually very picky and I don't mind saying 'no' to things... which is quite scary.

It doesn't matter how long you've been acting for, it's always scary saying 'no' to something as you're obviously saying no to money and then you're usually consigning yourself to a few weeks or a few months of uncertainty. But I still think you have to do it, unless you really can't be choosy because you've got financial problems. You have to, if you possibly can, think 'that's just not the kind of thing I want to be seen in'. So, generally, I am quite picky about stuff.

Sometimes when you have said yes to a show and it turns into a hit, the creators then cut it and run - Grandma's House and The Thick Of It being two recent examples. That must be frustrating?

One of the reasons I chose certain projects is because I really respect hugely the people involved in them. So when you do respect someone as much I do Armando Iannucci, I absolutely have to respect his decision [not to continue with The Thick Of It]. I think he'll know if he's got strong enough ideas to want to do a special or something, but if he's saying 'no I don't want to any at the moment', it's because he doesn't think it'd be up to scratch, and therefore I respect that and I don't want to do it.

I've worked with Armando long enough to know he has a 'let's get out whilst we're winning' mentality - he did that with Knowing Me, Knowing You and The Day Today too.

Talking of Alan Partridge, he's coming back for a film, which everyone is excited about. You're not in it though?

I'm not, sadly. That would have been huge fun, I would have loved to have done something in it but, no, I'm not unfortunately, but I can't wait to see it.

I love that character and I think every now and then he disappears off the radar for a bit and then, with every comeback, there's always this real buzz about it. It's just so great they're now making so much more with Partridge in because he's a character who can run and run - he's a brilliant comic creation.

You're currently in loads of great TV shows. Psychobitches is currently on Sky Arts and Up The Women has just finished its first series. What was it like working on Up The Women?

That's a real pleasure to do. Like Psychobitches, you're surrounded by terrifically strong women - although there are terrifically strong men as well, in both Psychobitches and Up The Women. I don't think I'd worked with Jessica Hynes before, but I've always been a fan. Vicki Pepperdine is in it too, who I absolutely love, so it's a very good show, and I'm very proud of it.

The next comedy you'll be in is BBC Two thriller The Wrong Mans...

I'm not in it a huge amount, I just pop up as a... actually, I don't know if I'm supposed to say, so I'm going to be a bit guarded and not tell you... but I'm an authority figure. I don't run through the whole story but I get involved towards the end of things, when it all starts to hot up.

I was only in for a few days of the filming, but it was really good fun and a terrific cast and a very, very strong script, so that should be great.

What are you working on at the moment then, Rebecca?

I'm writing mainly for the next couple of months, because I've got a TV pilot which I'm co-writing with my brother, Jeremy. We're filming that this summer, so we're obviously tied up trying to get a script ready for that. I'm also writing a book, so I'm pretty busy for the next couple of months and, then, after that, we'll need to see - I've got a few things which may well be coming back.