I've had such a great time, I'd like to come back as me - and do it all over again.

You're your first best audience, long before anybody else hears you. So don't be an easy audience. Keep asking for more.

I learn the whole time. I think it would be dull if I thought I was going to work and wouldn't find something new. We always learn.

The American cinema in general always made stories about working-class people; the British rarely did. Any person with my working-class background would be a villain or a comic cipher, usually badly played, and with a rotten accent. There weren't a lot of guys in England for me to look up to.

I've done a lot of radio in my life. I've done radio plays for the BBC when I was young so I was absolutely used to that style of work, of working with the voice. I have a very distinctive voice so it's always great for me because I open my mouth and everybody knows who it is.

I heard my first laughter on stage, when I was about 10 years old. It was gold pantomime and I remember I was playing Baron Fitznoodle, who was the father of the ugly sisters in "Cinderella." And I walked on and got a great big laugh and I thought that was fantastic, until I looked down and found that my flies were open. And so I always check my flies. I even check my flies on radio.

I'm forever testing myself. As a person and as an actor, I have no sense of competition.