I wasnt a model schoolboy. Of course, I was forced to sit through Shakespeare and I really got into some of it, though it depended on who was reading it out.

I'm not fussy about the medium I work in. I'll do television radio, you know. I have to, because that's the only way I can do continually good roles.

When I left drama school, my fear was that I'd get pigeon holed into comic acting and I did so much to counter it that I got stuck in the opposite.

I do as much comedy as I possibly can but I'm basically limited by the imagination of the secretaries who make the decisions.

People talk about me in Arcadia and I think I was okay in it but Ive given better performances in other productions that didnt have the same impact. But I knew Arcadia was going to be an event and I wanted to be part of it.

My career has suddenly started to be the one that I'd always wanted, not in terms of level of success, but in terms of - and this is what I've been banging on about - playing different parts in different media. I was very frustrated, in a physical sense, by people seeing me in a way that I wasn't. And I was beginning to find myself boxed into a corner. Hopefully things have loosed up a bit, and I've gotten better and become more relaxed as an actor.

Ive always believed very, very strongly that the way you treat people is more important than anything, professionally or otherwise.