Loved actually How Bill Nighy became our most unlikely new cult agony uncle

Bill Nighy is single.

- Morwenna Ferrier

He has never read a self-help book, had no intention of becoming an actor, and briefly went deaf after putting toilet paper in his ears to get to sleep. He has shutters, not curtains, in his bedroom, but he has no idea what time he wakes up in there. If you invite him to a dinner party he will bring you exfoliating products, except don't invite him, because he won't come. He is good at making custard, but doesn't cook because he lives alone "and it would be too sad".

The Surrey-born actor is as renowned for his suits as he is for his singular ability to inhabit a role while remaining recognisably Bill Nighy. But almost 50 years into his career, he is finally playing himself.

A new podcast called Ill-advised casts the 75-year-old as an agony uncle, doling out advice and his innermost secrets to listeners from Italy to Mongolia to Scotland.

The actor describes it as a "refuge for the clumsy and awkward".

But it's gently becoming the cult podcast of the year. In the most recent episode Nighy threatens to make merch.

Launched last month, the questions range wildly, from how to avoid going to parties to why my doesn't horse like me. But his advice is always the same: conversational, generous and uncertain, with a sprinkling of Nighy's trademark selfdeprecation. Each episode begins with various reasons as to why you shouldn't listen to a word he says.