Alan Carr's famous dad who wanted very different career for his son

As Alan Carr appears on our screens in the BBC series Celebrity Traitors, we're reminded of his complicated past with his father, who couldn't be more different from him.

The 49-year-old comedian made a lot of comments about his dad in his early stand-up career, which he now says he regrets. Since then, he's poured much of his past into the autobiographical TV sitcom 'Changing Ends', which details his childhood in Northampton in the 1980s as the son of a professional football manager.

The ITV show, which reminisces about on his upbringing in Northampton, has touched the hearts of many viewers, while also providing plenty of laughs. Set in the East Midlands during Thatcher's Britain, it shows the pivotal time through the eyes of a budding comedian whose family were football mad when he was all about showbiz.

Alan stars in the series, playing the older and wiser version of himself, alongside Shaun Dooley, who plays his dad, Graham Carr. Playing a little Alan in his flamboyant youth is Oliver Savell, whose performance landed him a BAFTA nomination.

"Growing up, I think a lot of gay men have odd relationships with their dad," Alan told The Mirror. "My dad was the best dad in the world, but I was like an alien in the house.

"I do feel bad because when I started out in stand-up, I talked about Dad in my act. My dad's not an a*******; he's just an 80s northern football manager who wanted his son to play football."

Now 80, the chatty man's father, Graham Carr, was once a professional football manager as well as a player himself and a scout. So, naturally, he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps but it was evident early on in Alan's childhood it was something that was not going to happen.

The comedian has poked fun at his sexuality, joking his father is to blame for his campness, whilst on the podcast Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness. He said: "My dad was a football manager. You know what they say about gays, the evolution, if you have a really masculine dad, they have a gay son.

"I do know a lot of gay men whose dads are. I high-kick out of my mum's vagina; there's been like a mix-up at the hospital, and there's some hairdresser looking at his son playing rugby going, 'What's happened?'"

On that same podcast, Carr addressed the criticisms he receives at times for often being dubbed as a "stereotype", thanks to his camp personality.

He hit back at the haters, saying: "The thing is with camp, if I put it on, then have a go at me.

"On the outside I am probably a stereotype, but my brain's not; if it was, everyone would have a podcast or a hit chat show. If it was easy to be me, everyone would be doing it."