If you go to Africa and you're white, you're probably not going to get that much work either. But the fact is that there is a longer history of black integration in the U.S. I don't have any resentment about this: I did the maths, calculated it against my ambition and decided to leave England.

I knew that if I wanted to be all I could be, I would have to go to the US. It took three years to get the accent right.

I still sing on bits and pieces. Singing's something that I love to do, but it's not something that I pursue as a career.

I'm never shaken or stirred.

People watch three or four episodes at a time of their shows.

Working at BBC, at the head of one of the top dramas, is a tradition for great actors.

Even when I went to America I didn't work for four years. It wasn't like I came to New York and it was the land of milk and honey. It was just as much of a hard graft. But there's a lot more opportunity nowadays across the board for actors, no matter what color you are, with the Internet and small productions.