To complain about critics in a business is like a sailor complaining about the waves. Go back to the beach if you don't like it.

I don't do anything for the money.

Of all the disciplines involved in making anything - TV, film or anything I do - the writing is the most valuable commodity.

The world is not entirely comic and it's not entirely dramatic. You have a laugh and then someone finds a lump and you deal with that. Because that is what life is like.

That's what life is, it's the small struggles. You walk down the street for half an hour, you see half an hour of drama. You don't need convoluted plot lines. You don't need long-lost brothers. You don't need it's set on the future; it's set on the moon.

I think the best advice I'd say to any actor when you do comedy is play it straight.

When you think of things like The Sopranos, The Wire, Damages, they are beating film on a regular basis. Most films are terrible. It's only the 2% that are good. There's things you can do on TV which you can't do on film. There is something about those episodic, serialisations that are grand and operatic.