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

I mean I can do it when I'm very relaxed, and with good friends, then I think I can be amusing.

The arts community still has a long lasting cynicism of the importance, or the artistic value, of comedy. Comedy is just farting about for money.

I tend to play rather odd men. People that are slightly odd or eccentric, or have a more particular attitude to life.

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.

It is very linear storytelling, and I think that's not so much the fashion. I was watching a new drama the other night which was extremely non-linear, where you flash back and flash forward in ways that certainly keeps you on your toes as the audience. There's not much of that courage with the storytelling in our Maigret film.

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