I suddenly think the job of acting is a difficult one. It's not as flip, irrelevant and shallow a calling as I thought it was in the Eighties.

The first couple of weeks of filming were quite tricky for me to find my feet with the character [Maigret], which wasn't helped by the story that we were telling.

I like to juggle with one ball at a time. Then I put the ball down and do nothing for extended periods of time.

I don't really have plans like that [move towards more dramatic acting].

For telling a good and incisive religious joke, you should be praised. For telling a bad one, you should be ridiculed and reviled. The idea that you could be prosecuted for the telling of either is quite fantastic.

You're about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest.

[Maigret] is more internal. I think if we made more of these I might let him out a bit.