Certainly in the second film [Maigret's Dead Man], which is quite a more unpleasant and darker story, it's quite different in tone and feel.

I think you're bound to get a sense of any character that you play. It's not something you often do in comedy.

I'm not a naturally funny man. I find that I can only be funny, if I become someone else.

I find his films about as funny as getting an arrow through the neck and discovering there's a gas bill tied to it.

ITV and the production company contacted me and asked if I fancied playing the role [of Maigret]. It took me a long time to decide to do it. In fact, I decided not to. I thought about it for some weeks, and thought 'perhaps not' and it went away for a while, and then it sort of came back. They said 'Are you sure you don't want to play him?', so I thought about it for a lot longer again, and eventually decided that I would.

To criticise a person for their race is a manifestly irrational and ridiculous. But to criticise their religion - that is a right. That is a freedom.

It's not easy to take a sit-com and turn it into a feature.