The English country house is certainly an icon of British culture.

Lawyers are always confident before the verdict. It's only after that they share their doubts.

War makes early risers of us all.

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.

I think it's always a challenge to adapt something from one medium to another - a novel into a film or a play into a movie or whatever.

If you are lucky, you have your moment. But it is never more than a moment. You have to enjoy it while it lasts.

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.