77 Quotes by Kevin Whately

Oxford is a funny place, as it is a mixture of town and gown. You have the students at the main university and at Oxford Brookes, but there is also a big working-class community.

People are very appreciative, and I'm always thrilled at how long the 'Morse' films have lasted. They seem to have an afterlife that goes on and on for decades, which is touching.

Put me on telly, and I think I have a relaxation on camera that makes an audience relax, too. It's not a conscious thing. Cameras don't bother me, whereas other people try to perform to them.

When you get to the end of a TV series, you feel totally out of sorts as an actor. You feel unfit; your voice box has collapsed on you because you've spent all day muttering into a microphone that's two inches from your head, and you feel desperate to spread your wings and do a bit of real thesping.

You just suddenly think that there's something quite childish about acting. Basically, it's pretending, isn't it? It's good fun and I enjoy it, but it's a funny way of making a living, particularly when you make a very good wage, as I've been fortunate enough to do.

She thought it would work and she was very encouraging.

I don't think of it as coming back - I'm trying to fight the idea that this is Morse revisited. It's the same character, but without John inevitably it's going to be a very different animal. A lot of the old Morse fans will tune in and I want to play down the expectations that it will be Morse, because it can't be. John was a particularly special actor - in my view he was the best TV actor we've ever had - so you want to aim high. But you can't expect it to be Morse. It's Lewis.

Wife wants to see Cats, don't know why, she?s allergic to them.

As a character we've got a head start because of Inspector Morse's popularity. In other ways we're slightly hamstrung by the character's original function. Lewis was always created as a foil, as a sounding board, for the amazing mind that Morse had - and you can't suddenly pretend that Lewis has that sort of mind.