Actor Anthony Head, 48, grew up in suburban Middlesex. After drama school he appeared in a number of West End plays and musicals, including "Chess" and "The Rocky Horror Show" as well as making occasional appearances on TV. He shot to fame as one half of the Nescafe Gold Blend couple in the 80’s , then for six years he spent eight months of each year living in LA, where he played the part of Giles in the cult teen horror series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Now back in the UK, this spring he appears in 50-something sitcom "Manchild" on BBC2 and in BBC1 spy drama "Spooks".

• What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
• "Many Lives, Many Masters" by Dr Brian Weiss. While I was out in the States I did a little hypnotherapy and read this book. It comes from a position of total scepticism - the author is an analyst who tries hypnotherapy to find out what a patient’s problem is and finds himself in a completely different landscape than he had first imagined.


• What’s your favourite album?
• I’m listening to it now. It’s one I brought back from the States and is called "Light Pink Album" by a folk-singer called Steven Allen Davis. He’s got a really soulful voice. He sings with an acoustic guitar, harmonica and sometimes a bit of strings. He’s been covered by lots of artists like Percy Sledge and Willie Nelson, but he’s still quite unknown.


• Who would you most like to be stranded on a desert island with?
• My partner, Sarah, and the kids (Emily aged 13 and Daisy aged 11). I don’t consider myself whole without them. But I’d also like to share an experience like that with them. It would be a real learning curve - I hope I could step up to the mark in the manly stakes, building things and so on.


• Who would you least like to be stranded on a desert island with?
• The name that comes to mind straight away is Margaret Thatcher. I can’t think of anyone less practical. I suppose she might be interesting but I think that would wear thin very quickly. She’d just be out for herself the whole time.


• What’s your favourite meal?
• Whenever I go to the States I eat lots of Mexican food - you just can’t get decent Mexican here. But that can get a bit stodgy, so for lightness of touch and delicacy I think Thai food is my favourite. There’s a great Thai restaurant in Bath called Mai Thai and we go there often. We always seem to order the prawns with coriander and chilli.


• What film last made you cry?
• "It’s a Wonderful Life" which I bought on video last Christmas. I found it very manipulative and it tries desperately hard to pull the heart strings. But then unexpectedly I felt the tears beginning to flow. I turned around to look at Sarah and her friend who I was watching it with - and they were fast asleep.


• If you hadn’t been an actor, what might you have been?
• Probably a writer. I don’t know whether I have the staying power to be a novelist - I find it incredible how anyone can sit down a write the necessary number of words, with such commitment and focus. But I have always love writing stories and scripts, though absolutely nothing I’ve written has ever been published or made.


• Who makes you laugh?
• Eddie Izzard is fantastic. I met him on a plane once when we were both trying to get upgrades to first class. But he was swapping a first class ticket from another airline so of course word came back that he’d got an upgrade and I didn’t. But then he asked "Do you want to toss for it?" and I said "I can’t do that, you won it fair and square." He said "No, no, no - let’s toss for it." And thankfully, he won. But we had a drink together and since then I’ve watched his shows: absolute genius.


• Who is your hero?
• My acting teacher in LA, Milton Katselas. He is extremely intuitive and perceptive about what makes people hold themselves back and is also a great exponent of a number of famous teachers. He opened my eyes to a completely new way of working.


• What other talents would you like to have?
• I wish I was more organised. Last week I had the task of putting a whole bunch of stuff in the loft. I was told to label it and of course I totally forgot. So there’s a whole pile of boxes up there and I haven’t the faintest idea what’s in them.


• City or Country?
• Country. I do like going to the city and the excitement of being near the hub, be it London or LA. But the countryside is where I always want to come back to. I was brought up on the outskirts of London and then moved near the centre but we decided to move out to near Bath when the kids were getting older. It doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, it’s always so beautiful and restful. It’s about quality of life.


• What’s your favourite trip?
• We did a trip to France a few years ago, travelling between a friend in Brittany and a friend in the Loire Valley. We went by car, looked at the map each day and said "lets stay there." We found the most wonderful little hotels and B&B’s that were just gorgeous. Everything fell into place. No cares, no time restraints. It was like a voyage of discovery.


• What’s your favourite sport?
• I’m not a great sportsman. The only thing I could do at school was sprint fast for a while and then fall over and be sick. Nowadays, I don’t follow sport. I get excited by World Cup football but that’s about it. I do understand the idea of watching sport because it’s so unpredictable but there are so many other things I’d rather do.


• What has been your most embarrassing hairstyle?
• Years ago I did a BBC series called "The Grudge Fight" set in a naval cadet camp. I had a great part but had to have an extremely short haircut. I pushed to the front of the queue so that the makeup supervisor could do it, thinking that she would be the best trained - but of course she was the only one who’d never cut hair before. She made one side ¾ inch higher than the other. It was a little thatch on top with a bizarre cut on the sides. I then had to go and get it cut properly at a barbers and it became monstrously short. I have a big head and slightly sticking out ears - and it really didn’t suit me. I looked like a complete gimp.


• How do you use the internet?
• I do email a lot of people in the States but I don’t spend hours surfing the net finding sites. It was sometimes fun to go to the Buffy site to see what the fans said and occasionally I used to try to answer questions - but the fans completely ignored me because obviously I was some prat pretending to be me. So I stopped bothering!


• What’s the most expensive item of clothing you’ve ever bought?
• I bought an Armani overcoat for a couple of grand about eight years ago. I still have it and it’s fantastic, a classic.