My parents came from different backgrounds. My father's was grander than my mother's, so my mother had... to put up with the disapproval of my father's relations.

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.

It's the gloomy things that need our help, if everything in the garden is sunny, why meddle?

I'm seen as a chronicler of the class system, which I don't think is unfair.

I think I have a very detailed sense of observation. I am interested in the details of people's lives and what information these details give.

What's difficult for American audiences is that they're used to a system here where you can get an actor for five years or even seven, and that is signed for at the audition. Whereas in England, no agent will give you an actor for more than three years.