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.

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

My wife likes history and documentaries, but I'm not so keen on them. I generally go and do some work if there's one of those on.

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

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.

An adaptation I was working on of Trollope's 'The Pallisers' has been axed by the BBC... I was also going to do Dickens' 'Dombey and Son' but they've asked me to do 'David Copperfield' instead.

I remain, however, fairly optimistic for the future of period drama because it's just such a popular thing.