My family values
A public figure describes the family values that made them who they are
Dougray Scott: ‘Mum’s parents didn’t approve of Dad. They cut off all contact’
The actor talks about learning his craft from his travelling salesman father, hitting his sister over the head with a golf club, and loving his adopted son as fiercely as his biological children
Nikki Amuka-Bird: ‘Mum was on the frontline of diversity, banging on doors’
The actress talks about her dynamic, entrepreneurial mother, journalist father and growing up in Lagos, Antigua and London
Kay Mellor: ‘If it hadn’t been for family, I wouldn’t have survived’
The writer of
Band of Gold on her violent father, creative mother, ultra-supportive husband and her daughters
Vera Lynn: ‘Mum was determined to put me on stage. I didn’t complain’
The singer, 100 this year, talks about her childhood, earning more than her dad, meeting her musician husband and why she had a small family
Frank Bruno: ‘As a baby, I would try to smash my way out of the cot’
Alexander Armstrong: ‘At home, I’m just the bumbling old fool in the corner’
Matt Lucas: ‘I wished I had told my dad I was gay’
The comedian talks about his hair falling out when he was six, his father going to jail, and his brother looking out for him when he was teased for being gay
Tamara Ecclestone: ‘A lot of people think of my dad as emotionless, but he’s not like that’
The socialite says her mum was the disciplinarian while her father, Bernie Ecclestone, was soft, and talks of her devastation at her parents’ divorce and her dependence on her sister, Petra
Greg James: ‘My parents are both funny – Dad would do silly voices, Mum was the acerbic one’
The radio DJ on forcing his dad to hide behind the hedge at cricket matches and why he loves to make his sister laugh
Imelda May: ‘Mum would sing all day long and Dad would play the harmonica’
The singer songwriter talks about her musical family, amazing childhood holidays and guilt about her marriage breakup
Richard Coles: ‘I was haunted by the idea of people living glamorously beyond my provincial horizons’
The cleric and broadcaster on drinking whisky at the age of four with his grandpa, inheriting his mum’s sense of mischief, and his adolescent obsession with fame
Tim Minchin: ‘If you ask Mum who was the most trouble, she’d say it was me’
The comedian, actor and musician on being part of a strong, close family, his parents’ high expectations, and discovering he could write good riffs
Rageh Omaar: ‘Nothing prepares you for becoming a parent. I just sobbed’
The TV journalist on a happy childhood in Mogadishu, his first taste of a British boarding school, and the first, unbelievable taste of fatherhood
Martine McCutcheon: ‘When I was a baby, my father threatened to drop me over a balcony’
The actor talks about her difficult childhood, why her mum is her best friend, and the joy of having a child after several miscarriages
Marty Wilde: ‘Passing on my love of music was my greatest gift’
The singer of A Teenager in Love on his tempestuous father’s musical influence, his clairvoyant grandma and his pop musician children
Gillian Burke: ‘I am a product of generations of people moving between continents’
The BBC Autumnwatch presenter talks about growing up in Kenya and Vienna, her family’s roots around the world and her love of jumping off things
Tony Blackburn: ‘I never wanted to rebel. I had nothing to rebel against’
The veteran radio DJ talks about his strongly supportive parents, his sister’s disability and why it’s hard work being a silly grandfather
Christian O’Connell: ‘If I had a time machine, I’d go back like a shot to my childhood’
The radio DJ talks about his excitement at getting a BMX one Christmas, having an Indian granny, and why the little moments with his kids are the best
Richard Dreyfuss: ‘The one topic on which my dad would open up was sex’
The actor talks about being the middle child with a funny, political mother and a distant, money-oriented father with a violent past
Lynda La Plante: ‘Did you write Prime Suspect? asked my mother – three series in’
The screenwriter and novelist talks about growing up on Merseyside with a sports-mad father, mother and grandmother, and adopting her son Lorcan at 57
About 479 results for My family values 
