Handsome Profits

Women adore him, men envy him and gay men use him as a poster boy.

And frankly, you can’t begrudge John Barrowman that because he’s so damn nice and... um... hyperactive.

“I’m a workaholic and a control freak,” he readily admits. “After the war, both my grandfathers worked and did any job to provide for their families. That’s the mentality I’ve always been brought up with. You’re put on this earth for a purpose. I’ve found my purpose and I’m going to work at it.”

Born in Glasgow, his family moved to America in 1976, but he returned to England in 1990, taking his first professional West End lead as an unknown opposite Elaine Paige in Anything Goes.

Yet despite crossing the Pond permanently, his family remains all-important to him.

Indeed, his parents constantly fly over to stay with him while his sister, Carole, has helped him write his memoirs.

On the surface at least, he is a person whose cup seems always half full, some might say even overflowing, yet it wasn’t long ago he suffered horrendous panic attacks. “I’ve been on stage in the middle of a number and suffered a panic attack,” admits the 42-year-old.

“Or been in the Tardis with the Doctor and kept one at bay and, most recently, during my show in Oxford on my concert tour, I let one charge through my system while I sang on.”

Yet the attacks have obviously not affected his career. Today he has so many offers, he has to turn down a lot of work, especially in the States, but confesses he’d love to be on Desperate Housewives.

“I’ve met with the creator, who has said he’d love to write a role for me. I love the show. I just want to be Bree’s neighbour!”

At one time, Barrowman was only known to theatre audiences, but playing Captain Jack on Dr Who has changed all that.

“I celebrate that with my family,” he says. “I’m putting my nephew through college and did the same with my niece. I’m a big believer in giving back.”

He also buys himself a treat with every new job he does. “It’s important to reward yourself. I do love watches and have quite a few. My pride and joy is my prize Rolex, which I bought when I got my deal for the book.”

And he’s a car enthusiast too and currently has seven – one for every day of the week – his favourite being a vintage 1982 Mercedes Benz SL convertible.

“I purchase all my cars on eBay – I like a bargain,” he reveals.

He has homes near Cardiff and in London which he shares with Scott Gill, an architect, and their three dogs. The couple have been together for more than 16 years, which is long for any partnership these days.

“I think everybody has to work hard at relationships,” he says. “I’m probably not easy to live with because I get bored very easily and I don’t sit still for very long.

“In my work life, if I want to get something done, I’m used to getting it done quickly, whereas at home I have to learn to sit back and accept that it’s not going to get done that quickly. But when I’m at home I’m not razzmatazz. I sit at home in a pair of pyjamas and a T-shirt, watching BBC News. Scott keeps me grounded.”

They became civil partners in 2006 and Barrowman hopes at some point they’ll adopt a child.

Get him on the subject of being gay and you can’t get him off it.

He is determined to spread the word that being gay is normal, that there shouldn’t be stereotypes.

“There’s a vast amount of us out there who aren’t camp queens.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a camp queen but that’s the safe image that television and theatre put out there. I like cars, I like machinery, I like sport. I’m very much like a guy who’s married to a woman, except I like men.”

His parents embraced the fact that he was gay 20 years ago, but it wasn’t easy then, he explains, and they lost friends over it who scorned homosexuality.

“You have to understand your parents won’t be okay with it overnight.

“You have to allow them to deal with it in the way they want to deal with it. Parents should stop judging their kids for being who they are.

“They should celebrate who they are,” he declares.

John Barrowman will be signing copies of his new autobiography I Am What I Am at Borders Oxford at 1pm on Monday. The book is a follow-up to his first book Anything Goes.