Big-headed. Boorish. Crude. But you still can't help adoring him.

In a league of his own: James Corden teams up with David Beckham for a Sport Relief sketch

Connoisseurs of ‘luvvie speak’ - the wildly effusive way of expressing oneself that actors are ­particularly prone to - will find plenty of choice examples in James Corden’s autobiography.

He describes a man called Toby Whale as ‘one of the most brilliant and lovely casting directors in the country’, while a TV producer called Suzi Atkins comes in for an equally big verbal hug: ‘I love Suzi, both ­professionally and personally, ­probably more than I should.’

Even Andy Murray, I suspect, might be a bit taken aback to find himself described as ‘without ­question, one of the warmest and funniest people I’ve had the ­pleasure to meet’.

But, mercifully, there is a lot more to May I Have Your Attention, Please? than gush - and what there is, above all, is honesty.

Although Corden may only be 33, he’s already racked up a ­formidable CV: Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, Gavin & Stacey, the hit play One Man, Two Guvnors in which he’s currently starring, and - for those who can stand his relentlessly matey bonhomie - the TV sports quiz, A League Of Their Own.

Gavin and Stacey: James Corden, back left, with some of the cast

However, there is a rather darker side to all this - and quite a substantial one.

Along the way, Corden has also been boorish, dissipated, ­puerile, ungrateful and big-headed.

Nothing especially odd about this, of course, but what hoists his book several rungs above most showbiz autobiographies is his ­willingness to address his failings.

You could, I suppose, argue that this spilling-forth of guilt is simply another form of gush, yet to do so, I think, would be unfair.

The regrets he writes about - mainly about how he treated his family and his ­girlfriends - never rings false, nor does his resolve to try to do better in future.

From as far back as he can remember, James Corden wanted to be the centre of attention.

Brought up in High Wycombe where his father sold Christian books and his mother was a social worker, he was four years old when he was taken to his sister’s ­christening in the local Salvation Army church.

Because Corden couldn’t see what was going on, the vicar invited him to come to the front.

And it was there, looking out at a sea of faces gazing back at him, that Corden knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. ‘From that moment forward, every day became a quest to be noticed.’

As he grew up, Corden discovered certain things about himself. Although he realised he was ‘never going to be a guy that girls fought over’, he worked out that if he was funny, it didn’t really matter how he looked - ‘girls liked being around someone who could make them laugh’.

While he loved being in school plays, he proved more than ­capable of ­creating his own dramas at home. Aged 14, he phoned up the ­Richard and Judy TV show ­claiming - falsely - that his arm had been broken by school bullies.

His parents, not surprisingly, were appalled. So, too, was Corden when he saw their reaction.

‘To this day, I have no idea why I did it,’ he writes.

Yet his behaviour doesn’t seem that odd for an avowed attention-seeker who never felt comfortable in his own skin and wanted to jump into someone else’s at every opportunity.

He got his first professional opportunity to do so, aged 18, when he appeared in a West End musical Martin Guerre.

He may have only had one line - ‘Roast the meats!’ - but it led to him getting other parts, most ­notably in Hollyoaks.

As he inched his way up the ­showbiz ladder, Corden came to another realisation. The people he most admired - Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, ­Russell Brand and so on - were all writing their own stuff, not just waiting around for scripts to land in their laps.

Invited to a wedding on Barry Island in South Wales, Corden studied the other guests at the reception, listening to their ­conversation.

He heard one man tell a complete stranger: ‘I’m a Mondeo. That’s who I am. I’m not a Ferrari. I’m not a Porsche. Of course, I’d love to be an Audi, but I’m not.’

Family man: James Corden with his girlfriend Julia Carey and new baby Max in the pram

Here, Corden felt sure, was the basis for something - but what? His initial idea was to write a ­single drama about a wedding with his friend Ruth Jones. As they wrote, though, the idea just grew and grew.

The first show of Gavin & ­Stacey, in May 2007, got an audience of 500,000. By the time it finished its third and final series on New Years Day 2010, that figure had risen to 12.5 million.

Corden, it seemed, had everything he’d ever wanted. He won a BAFTA, hobnobbed with David Beckham, slept with loads of women and made a pile of money.

But was he happy? Alas, no.

‘Every single one of my dreams was coming true and yet I couldn’t have been more miserable. I think most of all I was lonely - the ­person I became wasn’t the ­person I wanted to be.’

Fortunately, he met a sane-sounding girl called Julia who works for Save The Children and fell, almost instantly, in love.

Throughout May I Have Your Attention, Please? he - very touchingly - describes his ­feelings on having just become a father and the effect it’s had on him.

Having done much of his growing-up in public, these days Corden finds he’s happiest at home, out of the limelight.

‘Now everything I need I get from Jules and my son,’ he says.

There may be times in this book when readers, maddened by his loutishness, feel like swinging a boot at Corden’s more tender regions.

But by the end, I suspect that they - like me - will have been won over by his candour and charm.

And who knows, perhaps there will even be those who can find it in their hearts to forgive him for A League Of Their Own.

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