Sometimes the weekend gets hijacked by work, but as my mother would say, this is the right problem.

Sometimes the weekend gets hijacked by work, but as my mother would say, this is the right problem.

Maggie Smith has a unique sense of comedy, based on a somewhat ironic view of real life, making it both funnier and more sad. But perhaps her greatest ability, or at least the one that most intrigues me, is how she can convey deep and powerful emotion without a trace of sentimentality.

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.

My childhood was a happy one, spent in a tall house in South Kensington and later in East Sussex, but my early and mid teens were less successful.

The business of life is learning that you can't lay down the terms.

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