The thing that influenced me most in relation to 'Nanny McPhee' were the Westerns I watched with my father. All the Spaghetti Westerns; all the Virginians; all the High Chaparrals. Because if you think about the form, it's a stranger from out of town.

But when I lose my temper, I find it difficult to forgive myself. I feel I've failed. I can be calm in a crisis, in the face of death or things that hurt badly. I don't get hysterical, which may be masochistic of me.

A lot of very beautiful women can be a pain because all they're thinking about is how they look.

British aren't really known for their physical loveliness but firemen, generally speaking, are gorgeous.

What was important was trying to create something that families could watch together and enjoy together

If you don't want women to do whatever they need to do then you must provide them with food, you must provide them with shelter and their basic human rights.

And it's absolutely true that male sexual behaviour and female responses to male demands change a lot when they start communicating - and the levels of the communication that I've seen on the ground in very, very poor areas are so high and I think why don't we have that here?