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Choice cuts: Kevin McKidd

The North Square star likes Woody Allen's positive outlook

I have a four-month- old baby so that has put the kibosh on going out for the moment. As soon as you are not allowed to go out you feel like doing anything that isn't changing nappies.

To be honest, much of my time recently has been spent watching Ally McBeal (Channel 4, Wed, 10pm). I didn't take to it initially but I am starting to get into the madness of it and the fact that it isn't really about anything. I think men used to feel threatened by it because they thought it was a girl's programme, but it isn't.

Black Books with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey was really funny. It wasn't the usual stock sitcom fare. I think it might become the new Father Ted.

I have a really sad confession: I have always been a big James Taylor fan. I know he's gone a bit cheesy now, but the stuff he did in the Seventies was really good. There's a sentimental, melancholic side to his music that I like, he always sings about this far-off land where everything's great, but you are not actually there yet.

I also love the Beastie Boys. I like the fact that they do a bit of everything and don't care what anybody thinks of them. They are basically doing it for themselves and their mates, and it just so happens that they sell records as well. The fact is that they are not a manufactured band. Maybe they were when they started out in their snotty brat phase, but not now. I think Check Your Head (Grand Royal) is the best album. It is great to have on in the car.

The last film that I went to see was X-Men. It is about the only time I have been out to the cinema in about a year so to be honest I could have picked a better movie. I auditioned for it, funnily enough, reading for the part of Wolverine (eventually played by Hugh Jackman, right), but there was no way I was going to get it. How are you going to find a character less like Wolverine than me? I am a real Woody Allen fan, though I haven't seen the new one, Small Time Crooks, yet. I relate to the fact that he sees himself as a complete outsider, looking in over a wall. I've always felt like that a bit. I just find it funny, seeing people trying to work out why they're on the planet and making complete fools of themselves. He's not a cynic, he has quite a positive way of looking at stuff.

Kevin McKidd is in Far Away at the Royal Court, London SW1, until Dec 22 (020-7565 5000). North Square is on Channel 4, Wed, 9pm my cultural life

The Times 16 December 2000

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