Angela Barnes is a stand-up comic from Brighton (via Kent) who recently won the BBC Radio 2 New Comedy Award. Last month she appeared in the BBC Radio 2 Children In Need Gala, alongside the likes of Take That’s Gary Barlow and Joss Stone, and on December 8 she will host a Q&A with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as part of a back-to-back screening of their TV series The Trip at the Duke Of York’s Picturehouse in Brighton. Prior to becoming a stand-up herself, she was the brains behind monthly local comedy nights The Funny Farm and, latterly, The Funnier Farm.

See Angela on live comedy panel show The Humble Quest For Universal Genius at Upstairs At Three And Ten, Steine Street, Brighton, on Friday, November 18. For tickets, call 07800 983290

Which film star/musician/artist/writer/other figure do you admire?

Stephen Fry is probably an obvious choice, but I have nothing but admiration for the man (my hamster was even named after him). He is refreshingly honest and open about himself and his foibles. He has that mixture of extreme low self-esteem and the seemingly contradictory desire to perform and be loved that I, and most people in comedy, can identify with so much. I could listen to his voice all day and I love everything he has ever written. I once had a dream where he hired me as his “surprise assistant” because he liked to surprise people, but didn’t have the time to organise it. I’m totally available when that position eventually comes up...

Which TV programme couldn’t you live without?

QI. I can get my Stephen Fry fix while learning! It’s the one programme where, watching alone at home, I will often laugh out loud. They have brilliantly selected guests and the format is nothing short of genius.

What was the first record you bought and where did you buy it?

I got a record player (yup, I’m THAT old) for my eighth birthday and record vouchers to go with it. The first single I bought was Madonna’s Like A Virgin. I bought it from Our Price (RIP) on Week Street in Maidstone, where I grew up. The lyrics confused me greatly at the time. Thanks to the Christmas carol Silent Night, with its line, “Round yon virgin mother and child,” I thought the mother and child of the carol were sitting “round yon virgin”. So I thought, pretty logically, I think, that the virgin was the manger. It was several years before I realised Madonna’s song had nothing to do with baby Jesus’s cot being touched for the very first time.

Tell us about any guilty pleasures lurking in your CD or film collections…

OK, here goes... I like Meat Loaf. No, I don’t, I LOVE Meat Loaf. Paradise By The Dashboard Light is one of the greatest singles ever. Hearing Meat Loaf transports me to long car journeys with my Dad, with the windows wound down, the volume up, and both of us belting out the whole of Bat Out Of Hell over and over (and both of us tone deaf). There, I said it.

Favourite film...

Mike Leigh’s Nuts In May is far and away my favourite film. It was originally a Play For Today in 1976 and is about a couple’s Dorset camping holiday. It beautifully highlights the comedy and tragedy that make up the everyday experience of being human. It is such a simple premise, with little plot, but with each character so wholly realised. Despite having watched it at least a dozen times, it still makes me laugh out loud spontaneously. It is so deliciously British and is a delight for anyone that has ever been forced to “enjoy” a camping holiday. Alison Steadman is one of my comedy heroes, and she is nothing short of brilliant in this film.

Favourite book...

Where to begin? I was very lucky to have a brilliant English teacher at school (Jean Pearson, that’s you) who gave me a passion for literature that I still have. She introduced me to The Catcher In The Rye and it is the book I have re-read more than any other. It is a beautiful depiction of the contradiction in youth of understanding little about life, but thinking you know it all.

Is there a song or individual piece of music you always come back to?

There are many more than one! But, if I had to choose one, it would be Isn’t She Lovely? by Stevie Wonder. This song means so much to me. On the day I was born my Dad heard it on the radio on his way to the hospital, so he stopped at Woolworths and bought a copy. He said he knew then that I would be a girl. I still have this treasured seven-inch. My dad is no longer with us and this song always reminds me how lucky I was to have such an amazing man in my life.

What are you reading at the moment?

I feel I should say something terribly highbrow, but the fact is I am reading, and very much enjoying, my friend (and fellow Brightonian) Marc Abraham’s book Vet On Call. Marc is known as a TV vet, but this book is an account of his time as an out-of-hours emergency vet in Brighton. It’s a fun and entertaining read. I recommend it.

Tell us about a live music/theatre/cinema experience that sticks in your memory...

It is so hard to pick one live experience as I’ve had so many special ones. However, the Pixies at Brixton Academy in 2004 is way up there. I had always been a massive fan, but they split when I was 14. Their reformation was very exciting and I was there at their first UK gig. When they played Where Is My Mind? I thought I was in heaven. Bliss.

Is there a person that made you want to do what you do now?

Linda Smith. She was, for me, everything a comic should be: likeable and approachable, yet simultaneously biting, satirical, intelligent and focused. I think Linda did more for women in comedy than she is ever given credit for. She showed that female comics don’t have to talk about “female” subjects. She shone on Radio 4’s The News Quiz, where her astonishingly quick wit and ability to make accessible jokes about the topics of the day put her in a class of her own. She showed me that someone like me could be taken seriously in the world of stand-up comedy. I really don’t think I’d be doing what I’m doing now if it wasn’t for Linda Smith. I’m so sad I never got to see her perform live.