The writer in movies is about as low as you can get and you really are a hired hand. You are paid a lot of money to be treated like dirt.

Taking the humour out of Dickens, it's not Dickens any more.

I prefer love scenes to be shot up close with a lot of focus on eyes and mouths. Otherwise it can feel uncomfortable and voyeuristic.

A distinguished producer called Kenith Trodd actually lived in his office for over a year - the cleaners refused to go in because it was such a tip.

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

As a fairly innocent teenager, growing up in a village in Wales, I just thought, "God, I would like to go and hang about Soho and write great poetry and try to avoid drinking myself to death."

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.