At acting school people didn't speak like me. It was all received pronunciation - 'ow now brown cow.'

I think I became an actor because I couldn't sing.

All the great Shakespeare plays are about killing. Alas, poor Yorick, that's about death. And in Romeo and Juliet everyone up ends up dying. The greatest dramas in the world are all about sex, violence and death.

I had a very real fear of spiders until one bit me. I got bitten by a redback spider in Australia and I've never been frightened of them since. Maybe I've turned into Spider-man.

When somebody meets me in the street, they say, 'Hello, how you doing?' And I say the same back. It's just two minutes of your time and it's alright. I don't like people taking liberties when I'm with my family, but mostly people are really polite and that's lovely.

As a man, there's a part of me that feels I should still be going out and doing a proper day's work.

If you want to get on in life get off your arse because it ain't going to come to you. And if it does come to you and you're not off your arse then you ain't going to keep it very long.