If you can have a show that has quite strong morals and cover important themes but be able to put them out to a broad audience, that's an interesting thing.

A challenge is always important; as an actor, as a human, it's good to face challenges and it's good to push your boundaries.

I did listen to 1920s jazz or Al Johnson and a lot of early singers coming out of England. I would branch out a little bit to get a sense of the world that he might be coming into, in the '30s when jazz was changing.

It's funny because growing up, when Ali G first burst off the screen, it was something that I was probably too young to be watching, but I absolutely loved it.

If you can have a show that has quite strong morals and cover important themes but be able to put them out to a broad audience, that's an interesting thing.

I want to go to the extremes and transformation is something I'm fascinated by. At the same time, you can transform but you can only really put what you've got inside you into somebody, so there's always going to be a degree of you inhabiting any role.

People have interesting things to say and you're only going to learn from different people's experience and knowledge.