James McAvoy has revealed he has taken lessons from one of TV's most notorious failed actors - Friends character Joey.

The Scottish screen star has admitted his technique for crying on cue involved some tweaking in a sensitive area, copied from the sitcom.

James, whose films include Atonement, made his confession as he chatted to Graham Norton for the presenter's BBC1 chat show, to be screened on Friday.

Joey - played by Matt Le Blanc - famously described in one edition of long-running US series Friends how he would pinch himself painfully in the nether regions to make himself cry.

Asked how he can summon the tears, James said: "Generally I can do it when I need to, but every now and then I've had to get the tweezers out and do the Joey Tribbiani trick."

The star also said he used to pass the time while working in a bakery before he found acting fame by writing a wish list of girls he fancied.

"I worked in a bakery making fairy cakes. It was dull and I worked on my own so I used to write all the names of all the girls I wanted to sleep with in the cakes in jam. That got me through the night."