I've been a professional actor now for 38 years. A long time. And it's wonderful to earn your living doing something that you love. To think people actually give you money for it!

He was living in an age much more dangerous, more painful, much more on the edge than our own particular age.

Every person who is offered a knighthood has the opportunity to say yes or no. You get a letter from the Prime Minister saying you've been recommended for a knighthood and there are two little boxes, one says yes, one says no.

Real-life people are often the hardest to play, people that you recreate who have actually lived, because you have to live up to people's knowledge of those characters.

It was doing very well; it was doing particularly well outside of England. It was a very big seller for Carlton Television. But it was getting more and more expensive to do.

I am an actor and I live in the world of pretend in my working capacity. I live in the world of my imagination.

There's never been any game plan or thread through my career. It's just happened that I've ricocheted from one interesting character to another.