Image © PA
TV presenter Simon Amstell
Simon Amstell's mum might be cross to see that he hasn't eaten his greens.
Instead, he's left them in a neat pile at the side of his plate and, as I walk in to meet him, he greets me saying: "Hello! Would you like some spinach? Or a mushroom?"
It's that kind of oddball humour which has made him famous.
Sacked from children's channel Nickelodeon for being too sarcastic, in 2000 his superbly sharp tongue found a happy home on Channel 4's Popworld.
He and co-presenter Miquita Oliver broke the mold for TV interviews at the time by refusing to ask guests the standard questions about their music, preferring instead to tease the popstars, and make them take part in silly stunts.
It's an Amstell world
Simon Amstell's antics ranged from the childish (asking Britney Spears to lick a battery, offering Gwen Stefani a
"After six years on Popworld, Amstell became the host of pop quiz Never Mind The Buzzcocks"
piece of cheese) to the more controversial (flirting with homophobic reggae star Beenie Man).
Some acts, such as The Kooks, refused to return to the show.
After six years on Popworld, Amstell became the host of pop quiz Never Mind The Buzzcocks, taking over from the similarly acerbic Mark Lamarr and taking with him Popworld writer Dan Swimer.
While Never Mind The Buzzcocks was a new format for him, Amstell found the cutting humour was the same (he made Preston of The Ordinary Boys walk out from filming after joking about his then wife) and quit after three years.
During our meeting, the most offensive thing about him is his vegetable dodging, otherwise the 30-year-old is gentle and self-deprecating, looking out cautiously from a mop of dark curls.
Grandma's House
"On a more serious note, Amstell says the shows are quite different"
He's here to promote Grandma's House, a new family sitcom which he's co-written with Dan Swimer.
Set in a family house in Gants Hill, the suburb on London where Amstell grew up, and exploring the eccentricities of a close-knit family, it will draw inevitable comparisons with the Manchester-set Royle Family.
"Will it?," questions Amstell. "It's probably just because it's in a living room the whole time, but we venture to the driveway as well, you do see a driveway!" he jokes.
On a more serious note, Amstell says the shows are quite different because Grandma's House has "more conflict and probably more story", but he acknowledges that a comparison with the Bafta-winning Royle Family is not such a bad thing.
"It was probably one of the last good ones right? Or am I leaving something out?" he asks.
I mention Outnumbered and My Family.
"No, The Royle Family is the last good family sitcom in my mind," he says mischievously.
Amstell plays himself in the series, but he's not saying how closely his on-screen relatives resemble his own. "I don't want to go in to specifics because I quite like the idea of people wondering," he says, thoughtfully.
Family and Grandma's House
In the first episode he announces to his mum, played by The Thick Of It's Rebecca Front, that he wants to leave
"'With both Popworld and Buzzcocks, I felt we were about to start repeating ourselves', he says"
his presenting job on an unnamed vitriolic television show to pursue something more meaningful.
The comedian admits that this is reference is thinly-veiled.
"With both Popworld and Buzzcocks, I felt we were about to start repeating ourselves," he says. "Is this the more meaningful thing? I suppose so, I've always wanted to do something like this."
He continues: "Also, I realised I'd been taking the piss out of popstars for about eight years or something and I slowly realised that every time I was really just having a go at myself or my father or something. It feels a lot better for the soul, actually, attacking yourself rather than attacking innocent bystanders."
Simon Amstell swears that the version of himself in Grandma's House is "quite close to me, upsettingly so."
He goes on: "When we were writing it we realised we needed to take everything that was awful about me and put it into the show and so it's essentially me. Even when we'd finished it and I bought some new clothes and I thought, 'I won't be that idiot anymore', I'm still that idiot."
It would appear that Amstell's self-effacement is also, like his on-screen cockiness, an act. But he claims that in Grandma's House, in which he whines about being lonely, and offers his thoughts on being Jewish and gay, he is his true self.
Watching Grandma's House will certainly be interesting for Amstell's family too, who might spot some of themselves in the stories on screen.
