The Guardian
John Dugdale
6 April 2009

Newspapers
I was a Guardian man for many, many years but two years ago I had a change of heart – it got a bit celeby. I still get it on Fridays but read the Times and get the Observer and Sunday Times on Sundays. I’d never read the Daily Mail or the Sun.

Magazines
I used to be a magazine junkie but now it’s just music mags – The Word, Q, Uncut – my son’s superhero comics and sometimes Private Eye and the Manchester United magazine.

Television
Children’s programmes – Charlie and Lola, and Ben 10 with my son and daughter – the news, BBC4 documentaries, football, and I like Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle. Drama? Not really: sometimes Doctor Who, and box sets – I’ve seen most of The Wire and I am saving up The Sopranos.

Radio
Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie on Radio 2 about every night, Adam and Joe on 6 Music, Classic FM but only after 6pm – before then it’s too jaunty.

Books
Currently Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Philip Norman’s John Lennon biography and Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. I’ve usually got one of the classics on the go too.

Films
Recently Anvil! – The Story of Anvil, Watchmen and The Wrestler, all excellent. Favourite directors? It used to be Scorsese, but that stopped with Gangs of New York. Michael Winterbottom is brilliant. There are other British directors I think are fabulous, like Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, but I’m never asked to see them about working on their films.

Music
The Beatles – I’m obsessed, never get sick of them – the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. And I love Fleet Foxes and The Leisure Society – I wouldn’t want you to get the idea that I’m stuck in the past.

Ads
There are ads I don’t like when my boy’s watching Cartoon Network – they can be evil and relentless. But I appreciate the good ones.

Online
Amazon and the Times and Guardian sites. I find the internet daunting, but there’s YouTube, and Wikipedia is invaluable for research. And I use iTunes quite a lot.

• John Simm appears in an adaptation of David Almond’s book Skellig on Sky 1 and Sky HD on Sunday

(Thanks to ‘wibble’, Administrator at The Railway Arms)