We started filming in 1993 which was only four years after the fall of communism. The difference in Budapest over the last five years has been remarkable.

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.

My first course came and I put down my book, and I just happened to put up my hand to scratch my head and discovered that my toupee had been blown by the wind and was folded over backwards on the top of my head!

It was never physically dangerous except when I nearly fell off a horse, but it was physically arduous - especially when you were working late at night.

Ultimately it's a leap of faith and a leap of imagination to put yourself back in time into those conditions and situations and see how you would react.

Actors, I don't think, ever really grow up. I'm hoping that that rejuvenating process applies to me, too. It has so far. I've been very lucky.

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.