I had to think long and hard about what it would imply, what it would mean. Would it mean any alterations of one’s lifestyle? Or, more than that, the way that people regarded you? The way they reacted to you if you had a Sir in front of your name?

I think actors always retain one foot in the cradle. We’re switched on to our youth, to our childhood. We have to be because we’re in the business of transferring emotions to other people.

There’s never been any game plan or thread through my career. It’s just happened that I’ve ricocheted from one interesting character to another.

It was never physically dangerous except when I nearly fell off a horse, but it was physically arduous – especially when you were working late at night.

Actors, I don’t think, ever really grow up. I’m hoping that that rejuvenating process applies to me, too. It has so far. I’ve been very lucky.

I’m always conscious of the fact that I am part of a profession that is 80% permanently unemployed. So, to be working in any sense is to be privileged.

I’d gone into that restaurant and sat down and the waitress had taken my order and everybody else had seen me with this what must have looked like this creature, this animal, sitting on the top of my head!

They were totally supportive, always saw everything I did. One of the thrills of my life was when they went to the theater to see something that I wasn’t in. It opened doors for them that otherwise would have been totally closed.

It’s too hard a life for me. I could only do it – check out in that sense – if I checked out somewhere that was luxurious and within hailing distance of civilization.

I’ve been a professional actor now for 38 years. A long time. And it’s wonderful to earn your living doing something that you love. To think people actually give you money for it!