His private passions are the performing arts, art and architecture. He was deputy arts editor on Warwick University Radio as an undergraduate (when Stephen Merchant also had a show!), and spent most of his days there treading the boards in musicals. Since then he has been less active on the stage, but increasingly vocal off it.

He has a particular love of Wagner, and fondly remembers going to Bayreuth at the age of seven to watch the entire Ring Cycle. He enjoys the Proms each summer, and has been known to spend ridiculous numbers of hours in exhibitions (especially if they're on the Italian Renaissance or German Expressionism).

If he were to name his favourite playwrights, the list would look irritatingly conventional since Shakespeare, Ibsen, Pinter and Bolt would all have to feature. This, however, masks Sam's love to try 'a bit of everything' in theatre as much as in music or art. Though his tastes are not entirely unorthodox, whilst others are raving about Paris, Impressionism, the Pre-Raphaelites, BritArt or Martin Scorsese, he is more likely to be found championing Berlin, Expressionism, Giotto, Vorticism or Jean-Pierre Melville.

Sam is pictured at the acoustically perfect Greek theatre at Epidaurus, where Maria Callas once performed. Classicism, theatre and music: in Sam's mind, who could ask for anything more?