Those of you who are not aware of my brilliant career as a stand up comic, I'm not aware of it either so we might well wonder what we're doing here.

The point about a great story is that it's got a beginning, a middle and end.

I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time.

I was coming from a very cerebral, dark, difficult, layered play by Christopher Hampton and doing an action movie in Hollywood (Die Hard) with explosions, and I was holding a gun.

Any actor who judges his character is a fool - for every role you play you've got to absorb that character's motives and justifications.

England in the '60s and the '70s was everything that history has said; it was phenomenally exciting, musically.

When I get off the plane in England I always feel about two inches shorter.