Jenna Coleman as Clara, Peter Capaldi as The Doctor and Nick Frost as Santa Claus. Source: Supplied

Aged 15 his parents’ furniture business went bust, forcing the family to live in a council flat on a rough estate. His dad subsequently had a nervous breakdown and never worked again.

His mum had a stroke. She died shortly after cult sitcom Spaced turned Frost into an accidental star. In all four of his six siblings have passed away over the years.

“I think it just made me more serious as a man and it made me work harder and appreciate what I’ve got,” he says on the line from his Twickenham home. “I’ve always been one to put my head down and trudge forward … things just happen and you can either put some bigger onus on things and let it crush you, or you can kind of say, ‘We’ll let’s crack on, let’s move on.”

Frost’s latest role as Father Christmas in the Doctor Who Christmas Specialbrings up happy childhood memories — Tom Baker’s scarf, that weird theme tune and being terrified of Daleks and Cybermen.

Guess who’s coming ... to the Dr Who 2014 Christmas special? Nick Frost stars as Santa Claus in the popular show. Source: Supplied

“I remember being with my Mum and Dad and having my pyjamas on and you know, we’ve just had our supper on Saturday and that music started and you know for the next 40 minutes or so that’s going to be me on the sofa, and after that it’s bed,” he says.

He’s under strict instructions not to spoil the plot but reveals none of the “classic monsters” make an appearance.

On set ... Nick Frost and Peter Capadli in the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Picture Supplied Source: Supplied

“It’s not entirely monster free, but it hasn’t got any of the big ones in it,” he says.

Having spent his youth variously on a kibbutz in Israel, going to dance parties, and in a smoky haze watching daytime television, it was his dead-end job at a Mexican restaurant that resulted in his current career when he bonded with one of the waitresses’ partners, Simon Pegg, over a shared love of Star Wars.

Nick Frost’s Spaced cast ... Mike Watt (Nick Frost), Marsha Klein (Julia Deakin), Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg), Daisy Steiner (Jessica Stevenson), Brian Topp (Mark Heap) and Twist Morgan (Katy Carmichael). Source: News Corp Australia

The comedian cast Frost — who by his late 20s had no acting experience whatsoever — in slacker sitcom Spaced, and they went on to form a neo Laurel and Hardy partnership across films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End.

Both are married with kids, but while their relationship has evolved over the years, Frost says it has done so “always for the best”.

“We love each other and support each other and we laugh more than anyone,” he says. “We probably text each other twenty times and day …. That’s our glue, the fact that we love each other and laugh a lot even as our lives change.”

Very much an accidental star, despite appearing in blockbusters Tintin, Paul, Snow White and the Huntsman and The Boxtrolls, he says he’s never sweated over an audition, or worried about his next job. He just had faith it would all work out.

Funnymen ... Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in a scene from the film Paul. Source: Supplied

“I think I still have that attitude,” he says. “It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine … So far, so good.”

Frost never studied acting and isn’t much of a fan of the process. He’s spoken in the past of how nerve-racking he found Tintin, being handed reams of rewritten dialogue just minutes before filming. Recently he’s expanded his skills, co-producing Cuban Fury and he’s currently writing and set to star in a new pilot for US network ABC about a retired jewel thief called The Finger.

“I never really wanted to be an actor, I always wanted to be a writer, a novelist,” he says. “I’m as happy behind the camera or producing something, or writing.

“I think if I could do a job in this industry that didn’t mean I had to learn lines and lines of shitty dialogue each week, that would probably make me a lot happier.”

WHO KNOWS WHAT’S IN STORE ...

IT’S an annual Christmas tradition for Doctor Who fans — the BBC carefully guarding the plot of its Christmas special. Here’s what we do know:

•The 2014 special is the first festive one to feature Peter Capaldi’s Time Lord.

•The show sees Doctor and companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) trapped in the Arctic, attacked and having to ask Frost’s Father Christmas for help. BBC bosses say the plot will resolve whether Coleman is staying with the show next season, or if she’s leaving.

•The special also stars Michael Troughton, following in the footsteps of his father Patrick Troughton, who played the second incarnation of The Doctor.

•Capaldi let slip in a recent interview the show is both ‘incredibly festive and jolly and it’s quite terrifying … Santa basically appears on Clara Oswald’s roof with his elves, but this — which otherwise might be an excuse for cheer and happiness — is actually a nightmarish development. And only the Doctor knows why.’

DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL — LAST CHRISTMAS

FRIDAY, 7.30PM, ABC