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

Be careful about the advice you give, especially to your children.

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

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.

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

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

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.