In Britain, the press want to kill a show by revealing what's coming up and spoiling the pleasure.

Am I athletic? In my dreams.

I've often been the guy who doesn't get the girl.

For the last episode [of Downton Abbey], you'll need some handkerchiefs. I needed handkerchiefs reading it. It wasn't because it necessarily moved me while reading it, but it was the experience of reading it when I realized it was the last time I was ever going to be reading one of those scripts. That was quite terminal.

I'd love to retire somewhere like Winchester, where you have one foot on the pavement but a sense of being in the country as well.

I think any film that asks its audience a degree of tolerance and acceptance of those less fortunate than themselves isn't a bad thing from whatever culture you're in or from whatever part of any political spectrum.

At home I have a Tibetan terrier. I'm still not sure if he's a genius or very thick. It's a fine line.