The BBC fulfils a wonderful cultural function. Maybe the problem is that it feels it needs to be everything to everybody.

People like bonnets. I don't think you can under-estimate that.

I adore doing classic adaptations, but I also feel their frustrations and their limitations.

One of the things I've always thought is a drag in so many period adaptations is that they are always buttoned up to the neck in so many clothes all the time. I'm always looking for excuses to get them out of their clothes.

Othello' is the most domestic of Shakespeare's tragedies and the one that's likely to strike a personal note with a lot of people watching it.

Look at Jane Austen. Her characters derive in a reasonably straight line from fairy tales.

I got quite cross when I heard about Emma Thompson adapting 'Sense and Sensibility.' It was absolutely childish of me, but I thought, 'I should be doing that. They didn't even ask me.' Some mistake, surely.