I am a coward, basically, but one of the things about acting is that you are always putting yourself through yet another test.

If you play a part that's been done before, on stage for instance, you feel like you're carrying a torch and staggering under the weight of it for a bit and then passing it on to somebody else.

It would've been hard to do something else, to as it were, run away from the circus and become an accountant.

I usually play toffs and soldiers, with a sideline in mass murderers.

Stamps from Afghanistan are hilarious. You can tell when the revolutions are because suddenly they stop having pictures of the mullahs and the independence monument and they start having fish on them.

I mean I think children love the idea that there are different viewpoints and different words for things and different worlds. And the more that they pretend to be other people, the harder it is for them to hate them and misunderstand them when they grow up.

At heart, this job is about continuing to make great theatre for the people of Sheffield - a city I've known and loved since childhood.