Films about the English monarchy, they tend to have a lavishness, sumptuous imagery, it's all very posh and rich.

In "The King's Speech," patriotism is utterly contained within a historical moment, the third of September, 1939, where the aggressor is clear, the fight is clear, it hasn't become complicated over time.

American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class, age, gender, culture.

The thing that fascinates me is that the way I came to film and television is extinct. Then there were gatekeepers, it was prohibitively expensive to make a film, to be a director you had to be an entrepreneur to raise money.

I think we all have blocks between us and the best version of ourselves, whether it's shyness, insecurity, anxiety, whether it's a physical block, and the story of a person overcoming that block to their best self. It's truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that every day.

Some of my most special shooting experiences have been at weekends.

Thank you to my wonderful actors, the triangle of man-love which is Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and me.