I love the Shakespeare history plays, I love the struggle for the crown as a plot.

At school I briefly wanted to be a palaeontologist, but I was no good at chemistry and physics.

Some facts in life are immutable. One is, trust no-one who uses the word 'trope'.

It was all quite ghastly and I was very fond of it.

I grew up with low self-esteem. I didn't think I was very pretty. I had glasses, red hair and was generally quite a spod.

I'm terribly nostalgic, but I'm with the Elizabethans who thought nostalgia was a disease. It's a dangerous place to be because you can get caught up in it.

The question I ask myself is: have I really just become a squeamish middle-aged man, or has something happened to the horror genre that shows a growing appetite for watching torture, or at least a desire to explore it on film? And if so, why would that be? I can't pretend I know. I just know I don't like it.