On a radio drama I'd like to feel that I had just as much chance of playing Mr Darcy as anyone else because I can sound like him, yet many radio producers find it very difficult to extend their imaginations to employing anyone who's non white.

Both my parents were migrant workers who came to the U.K. in the Fifties to better themselves. The culture I grew up in was to work hard, save hard and to look after your family.

I am officially a doctor, and believe it or not, I can save lives and tune certain instruments and can beat peasants with a stick.

There are occasions when I've had beef, but I generally tend to avoid it, as a nod towards my parents' culture.

Theatre has always been better disposed to colourblind casting than telly or film. Given that most television is contemporary, and it reaches 56 million people, I am disappointed there still isn't more representation.

I make terrible jokes every time I go into a hospital. I think it's a defence mechanism.

My mother had been an English teacher in India before she came to the U.K., and she taught me to read early on - not only in English, but in Hindi, too. My teachers didn't like the fact that I was reading more quickly than they were teaching, and as a consequence, I would sometimes get bored in class.