I think American television changed world television in its reinvention of the series.

When you are desperate to get someone who isn't all that interested in you, you lay siege as hard as you can.

Plenty of friendships are sustainable through dinners and lunches, but will not stand a week away. So be careful with whom you go on holiday.

You see, in America, it's quite standard for an actor to sign, at the beginning of a series, for five or seven years. The maximum any British agent will allow you to have over an actor is three years.

If you're in the movie or in television, your failures are very public, and so are your successes. You weigh them up against each other, really.

There are many nations that have perfected a particular room. You know, you have the French drawing-room, the Austrian ball room, the German dining room, and I think the library is a room the English get right.

I envy people who can think, 'No, I'm not going to work today' when they have a huge pile of deadlines stacking up.