Elaine and I got married in summer 1979, we went on our honeymoon and came back for the premiere of Scum. All of sudden my face was on billboards in Leicester Square and people were crowding outside the cinema, going mad about the film. It was a complete shock.

The greatest dramas in the world are all about sex, violence and death.

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.

I'm probably not very funny. The scripts just don't come in, or the ones that do aren't that good. I suppose I'm just an old drama queen, really.

You've always got to have an imagination in the game we're in but it explodes on this. You get to try the costumes on before you start and feel the weight of them, which is great. But then you're opposite some of the greatest actors in the world and away you go. You find your imagination takes over without you really even thinking about it.

There is something about silence and being in the middle of nowhere that is really very attractive.

I've never met a politician I haven't wanted to walk away from, and I've yet to hear a politician speak and actually believe the words coming out of his mouth.