I did quite a lot of fencing when I was a kid, I was a swimmer, and I played a lot of basketball. I was a fencer for Great Britain, but I only did that because I watched Robin Hood, Star Wars, Highlander and The Three Musketeers, and I wanted to emulate Richard Harris and the great British actors that I grew up watching.

I like to know what the gestation of the idea is, I like to know the foundation, and I do a lot of reading and research.

I've been trained by a two-time world champion kickboxer, who's local to where I come from, and who is really just there to keep me fit and healthy while I'm shooting.

You can't go around saying you're the best, all the time, 'cause it puts a target on your back.

When you read the poem, you wonder, what might Grendel have been? Could it have been a person that was turned away? Someone that was disfigured or deformed? Like everything else did, it came from somewhere. It's really exciting, and not knowing is part of the magic and mystery.

A lot of characters now on TV have moved into being anti-heroes, but I wanted to be the hero.

There's a great freedom you get when you're making TV that you don't get when you're doing film.