There is nothing better than playing a scene with John Cleese or Maggie Smith. It's electric. But I don't think I'm the sort of person who needs to have an outer ego in order to produce something. I realised that through the travel programmes.

One of the difficult things of so much travelling is to say goodbye.

I'm aware that, if you feel down, it can be strangely unrelated to circumstances around you. That's just the way life is.

[There] are people who make a complete and utter mockery of 'democracy' and 'equality' - they're the casualties of the primitive rules of competition which run our society, and the welfare state just keeps them alive. That's all.

Armageddon is not around the corner. This is only what the people of violence want us to believe. The complexity and diversity of the world is the hope for the future.

The human race should just slow down and think about what it is doing.

I want people to know there is more to Somalia than looting and piracy.