I remember talking to Alex Ferguson about Tony [Blair] and Gordon [Brown], and he said: "Why doesn't Tony just get rid of him?" But if you sack someone in football, they can't turn up to training the next day. In politics they're still on the pitch. Gordon would still have been a big player.

Jeremy, are we going to play your games?

My dad, Donald, was a vet and had a practice in Yorkshire. Cats and dogs were his bread and butter, but his greatest love was large animals.

In an ideal world, it would not take a film star to get the media focused on mental illness.

I used to be very routine-based and the new thing in my life is not having a clear, full-time existence.

Failure, it is thought, is what sells, and what people want to hear and read about. I am not so sure.

I have a nightmare about Tony [Blair] and Gordon [Brown] killing each other. Not every month, but now and then. I also have a recurring dream about losing.