From The Sunday Times Travel Magazine February, 2008, issue

Where do you go to get away from it all?

Italy – the last few times I’ve been I’ve stayed on the Amalfi Coast around Sorrento. I love it. You’ve got to be careful eating in France, things come with eyes and legs. In Italy, it’s all pizza and pasta.

Are you a beach person?

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• My hols: Omid Djalili

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• My hols: Roger Lloyd Pack

• My hols: KT Tunstall

• My hols: Jessica Hynes

• My hols: Marina Lewycka

• My hols: Bruce Parry

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• My hols: Alex James

• My hols: Rankin

• My hols: Matt Dawson

• My hols: Natasha Bedingfield

• My hols: Joaquin Cortes

No. I used to quite like them when I was trying to burn myself into an early grave in the ’70s. Why did I get all those tans? I get bored too easily now. I can’t sit still.

You spend a lot of time in the States, what do you love most about it there?

I’m just fascinated by America. Anything is possible there. I grew up wishing I was an American Jew – for the comedy and one-liners.

New York or LA: which gets your vote?

No doubt about it: New York. It’s so cosmopolitan. It’s the joint best place in the world with London. LA just feels like a big studio, whereas in New York you feel like you’re experiencing culture.

So, London and New York are on a par?

Yeah, I live in London because I love it. When I was small, I always knew there was something outside Reading. I was a tadpole, but I knew I’d get back legs. Now, whenever I see a shot of Piccadilly Circus in an old movie, I think, ‘I know that place’.

What’s the one unmissable NYC experience?

Getting in a yellow cab and fearing for your life! It’s like being in the dodgems.

Crazy cab drivers aside, would you like to explore more of North America?

I’m actually half-Canadian, but I’ve never been to my neck of the woods, which is Ontario. There is another place I’d like to see, too – you know, when films start and there’s a dusty road with one little diner with a flickering light? Well, there. Where is that? Where are those towns?

Which other places top your list?

Well, I’ve never been to Asia, and I’d like to visit Australia and New Zealand, but I’m waiting for that flight that takes two hours and catapults you up into space. I’d love to go to Africa for the wildlife. It would be my absolute heaven to wake up every morning surrounded by animals. I love them. Isn’t it incredible that a leopard can drag an antelope up a tree?

Ricky’s new live DVD, Fame, is out now.

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