I wasn't a keen taker of speed because I didn't like the comedown from it.

I think the French agonise more about being French, I don't think English think about being English that much. I think the Scottish think about being Scottish and the Welsh think about being Welsh, but the English don't really care. But the French think about it all the time, it's an absolute preoccupation.

I don't see any point in having a public service broadcaster which attempts to compete with the commercial sector. Obviously part of its remit is to entertain, but entertainment doesn't necessarily mean scraping the bottom of the barrel and appealing to the very lowest common denominator.

Conversion requires a subtler mind. Architects don't like it, architects want to create their own landmark buildings so that people a few years hence will say, 'Oh, that building there is being knocked down, who did that one?'

I wasn't a keen taker of speed because I didn't like the comedown from it.

I don't believe in synergy. I believe that things have to be specific to the medium that they're in.

Brummies run themselves down, they're very self-deprecating. Whereas Yorkshire people certainly aren't.