Anyone can write. But comedy, you've got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.

I spent 30 years of my life not being wanted at all for films.

When I was 6 my father went to fight in the war, so he was my big hero. I thought he was the greatest thing.

I think life has got to develop as you get older, and I don't want to be wandering along doing the same old thing. I want more out of life.

I've never been competitive with other actors. I've been competitive with myself and I'm my own worst critic, a terrible critic I am, and unless I get something right, I feel very unhappy.

But the whole point of the Sixties was that you had to take people as they were. If you came in with us you left your class, and colour, and religion behind, that was what the Sixties was all about.

I was a repertory actor, which meant that I did a play every week. I was a different character every week; for a year, I was doing 40 or 50 characters.