Standing behind the bar looking snazzy in an Ozwald Boateng suit, John Thomson is holding court. We’re in the cellar of his house, which has been transformed into a den complete with mini-cinema and saloon where the actor entertains his friends. As warm as his Cold Feet character Pete Gifford but sharper, he is a brilliant mimic, an irrepressible show teller and a consummate showman.

Laughing with him is Sam Sharp, his partner of a year-and-a-half and the woman who has kept him grounded as his celebrity status has soared. With that fame has come the inevitable sacrifice of privacy. Over the past 18 months, the comedy actor – known in his various incarnations as Fat Bob in Steve Coogan’s Paul Calf Video Diary, Jazz Man in The Fast Show and, more recently, the voice of Bill in the new adventures of Bill And Ben - has found himself the unwilling focus of much press attention.

Last year he was branded a “love rat” when his long-term relationship ran its natural course and more recently he endured a painful episode when his family background was dredged up by a newspaper – an experience he describes as “horrendously bad”.

To read more about John Thomson and how Cold Feet has turned him into and unlikely sex symbol see this week’s HELLO! magazine, on sale now.