Funnyman Greg Davies picks out Black Country group's song for Desert Island Discs - and explains why

Greg, who was raised in Wem where his mum Pauline still lives, revealed his innermost thoughts on BBC Radio Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

The show prepares people for a fantasy life on a desert island and challenges them to pick which records they would take with them.

His hour-long interview with presenter Lauren Laverne was filled with laughter and emotion from the days when he was growing up in our region, the death of his father, and a special mention to his mum.

On screen, he’s known for his role as the entertainingly stern host of the global hit show Taskmaster, as writer and star of popular sitcoms Man Down and The Cleaner, and as Mr Gilbert in blockbuster teen comedy The Inbetweeners.

Desert Island Discs gives celebrities the chance to reveal their innermost thoughts and motivations.

Greg's fourth disc on the show was from Stourbridge indie band The Wonder Stuff and their song Circle Square, which includes the line: "I've been a long term disappointment to myself."

He said there have been many years when he has been disappointed with himself, and disappointing his parents. His mum, he said, has been ambitious for him and wanted him to succeed and do well in something.

But he said the only bad bit of advice his dad gave him was to become a teacher. Even though he taught English and drama for more than a decade he said he hated it and often "woke up in tears before work".

He was once nominated by a pupil to be Teacher of the Year. But he said the girl who nominated him only wrote one line: "He's a dead good laugh, he don't make us do work."

Greg also revealed that he got "PTSD" from going back to Edinburgh where he appeared at the city's Festival Fringe where he felt he was having a last chance to make a success and "had to make these years count."

The comedian revealed that, when he was born, his dad drove his heavily pregnant mum from Shropshire 45 miles to St Asaph's in Wales, rather than seven to his local hospital. His dad was a proud Welshman who wanted Greg to play rugby.

Twelve years later his dad "begged me to go to a rugby club" but he was an "asthmatic weed who couldn't catch a ball" and when he "started crying in the car park, he drove me home".

He said although his dad was funny he owes a lot to his mum who is "thoughtful and funny".

"She is always looking out to the stars and I love hanging out with her," he said, adding he was glad he had said that on the radio.

He added that his mum would help him and his sister to win fancy dress competitions by dressing them up as a "walking scale model of the colosseum".

The show asks guests to choose their favourite songs, and Greg chose Glenn Campbell's Wichita Lineman to remind him of his dad's "farewell gig" before he died.

He said he thought he was sharing a "special moment" with his father at the end of his life, but his dad urged him to go because "that car park is a nightmare to find".

Greg also chose the track 100 Per Cent Endurance by Yard Act, which reminds him of his mum and discussions about life.

Greg also revealed how he felt like a "frightened weed" at primary and secondary school which he "hated". And he felt like an awkward, painfully thin "beanpole" who grew eight inches in one year and is now 6ft 8 inches.

It was only in his later school years that he "found his tribe" with "similarly minded silly boys" who would make up stupid sketches.

He said one of them was to invent a backstory about a pupil who always had a crisp fold down the front of his trousers. The whole house was handed over to the pressing of trousers.

He named an English teacher Derek Evans, who listened to one of their comedy songs tapes and wrote a review of it.

The comedian chose Baggy Trousers by Madness as one of his discs, describing them as "lunatics from London" who he heard at the age of 12 and living off a diet of "Elvis and Abba" from his mum and his dad's classical and Frank Sinatra choices.

He also played Cemetery Gates by The Smiths, Consider Yourself, from the soundtrack of Oliver and She Sells Sanctuary by the Cult, which he said he had mimed many times in front of the mirror, and The Next Episode by Dr Dre.

Greg told Lauren that he would be OK with being alone on a desert island because "age brings a benefit of being a bit more comfortable in my own company".

He said he would learn to weave and build and swim as long as the water was shallow enough for there to be no sharks. He swam for the county a couple of times.

Greg chose the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck to add to the compulsory books The Bible and The Complete Works of Shakespeare. He said it was a powerful story of friendship that is sad but often funny.

He said it reminded him of his dad saying that there is always someone worse off than you.

Although Greg said he would like to be a vegetarian and would live on a "coconut" heavy diet on the island because he could not eat fish, he loves "cheap straight sausages".

Presenter Lauren offered him a lifetime supply and he chose to save the song 100 Per Cent Endurance if everything else was washed away.

Desert Island Discs is available to listen to on BBC Sounds.