We still have a tradition certainly in English television; it's faded a bit in the last five years, but we still have a tradition where the important thing is the quality and the challenging nature of the programming.

The Maigret stories are all very different in terms of the content and the way that the stories are told. They're not what I would call formulaic.

I can be reasonably funny and light-hearted when I'm in the company of good friends, but I'm not a jokesmith. I tend to be quite serious.

[Georges] Simenon could be very brave like that. You never quite know what you're going to get or how the story's going to be told.

Without wanting to claim that I'm really like James Bond I would certainly prefer to be thought of as closer to James Bond than Mr. Bean most definitely.

My personal problem is that I take the business of film-making so seriously that I find it very difficult to relax.

I think in many ways Johnny English is a more believable character.