This is sort of inflection-free acting [playing Maigret], and I really wasn't sure if I could do it - you make your mind up on whether I've succeeded or not. But yes, I found it difficult when we were shooting; it was a couple of weeks before I settled into not worrying - to finding a way of delivering those lines - so my worries of many months before I think had been justified. I found it a difficult way of being.

I like to relish words and sentences, and phraseology, and there's not much facility for that [playing Maigret].

It was the challenge of that that I found daunting, but also engaging and interesting [to play Maigret].

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.

Your services might be as useful as a barbershop on the steps of a guillotine.

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

I want to express myself in a different way. I have a performing inclination.