I get pretty grumpy about TV.

My own death threats have declined considerably.

I was brought up in industrial south Lancashire, down the cobbled road from where LS Lowry (1887 - 1976) lived and painted.

The thing you notice here after America is how refreshingly ordinary people look because they haven't had their chin wrapped around the back of their ears.

There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I've spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it's very flattering to be in their company.

I don't normally take to Yorkshiremen.

There's something wholesome about the theatre.

No one seems to wash in Middle-earth.

Fame creeps up on you.

You mustn't upstage the bride.