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

When you see two writers named on a movie, one of them did some drafts and got the boot.

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.

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

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

The most moving scene for me in 'Pride and Prejudice' is the Pemberley music room scene: Elizabeth has just saved Darcy's sister from embarrassment and confusion, and as the music plays on, Darcy's look of gratitude becomes a look of love, which we see reciprocated in Elizabeth's eyes.

Novels often have leisurely openings; a TV drama needs an arresting opening.