It was pretty daunting. Normally, I never go to a gym, but before we started shooting, I thought I'd better. I reckoned I was in really good shape, and then I looked around and I was half the size of everyone else. A lot of these American actors have this - in my view - misplaced view that they have to look like Action Man. The trouble is, they all run the risk of being interchangeable.

My heroes were all in the theatre.

I don't mean this grandly, but it was never my intention to live in L.A. and do a big network show.

Quiet people, people who arent given to emotional outbursts, people who are economic with words - theyre also fun to play, but you find yourself needing a laser precision in those roles. Otherwise you just sort of stand around, looking slightly brain-dead. You worry about being uninteresting.

I was, if you like, a successful schoolboy in that I had a degree of talent in all the required things that make you a success at school.

The best shows succeed because they tap into a national conversation.

It's an unfair comparison because when things are developed in the UK, they're developed at script stage only.