The job is interesting, and the task is difficult, but the man [Maigret] is just a decent man doing a very ordinary job.

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

I would never wish to say that I've finally waved goodbye to any character, it's just that the emphasis tends to shift.

I'm sure that a French production of this [Maigret series] would be different. For better or worse, who's to say, but probably not very good for 8 o'clock on ITV.

[Maigret] is terribly self-contained, not that I would ever wish him to be any more comic, particularly, but in the second film we've made you see he's a little more ironic from time to time. But as I say, that's just work in progress.

In TV, and in particular in commercials, you don't really need to explain very much at all - you just say he's a spy and he's a little bit theatrical and overblown and smug and he's not very good at his job.

The older you get, the more you realise how happenstance... has helped to determine your path through life.