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.

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.

I would love it if anyone gave me the job of adapting 'The Great Gatsby,' but nobody ever does.

From time to time there is a move to do a little less in the way of period dramas, but people rebel. Audiences say we want them. There is a big hunger for them. I don't think it's sentimentality or nostalgia, it's often that they are simply the best stories.

The older I get, the more fun it is to write young people. It's just a holiday from what is becoming old age, really.

Plan for each episode to be a satisfying experience, but still leave the audience thinking, 'Oh, my God! Now what?

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