Quotes

I think people need entertaining and they like being entertained. That's all I do. I don't do anything important, I just work in entertainment.

[his description of himself in a documentary about the making of Doc Martin (2004) in 2006] Jug ears and child-bearing lips.

I don't do very well being away, and America starts to annoy me after a while. I just like the UK better - I couldn't go over there, it would drive me mad!

[on the popularity of Doc Martin (2004)] It always seems like such a surprise when another country sort of chimes in wholeheartedly, in a kind of epicurean way. Especially in the way it has been picked up in Canada and the US in almost cultish fashion. You're not going to be a cult in England when you're on mainstream TV.

It's really such a liberating role. It's nice to be rough with the elderly, violent with children, and generally rude to everyone. But audiences seem to like it, wondering what kind of outrageous thing he will say or do next.

I must point out that no babies were hurt in the making of the program this season. At heart I'm really a bunny-hugger .

Honestly, as I get older, I find it really hard to remember words like 'polymyalgia'. Some of these medical terms I can't even get out of my mouth. Some have to be written on the walls behind the characters with the diseases.

[on Churchill Insurance, who dropped him from their commercials after he was banned from driving for six months] I was very surprised by their reaction. It was neurotic and very heavy-handed. Quite rude, actually. They never said goodbye. They never said thanks. They washed their hands of me completely.

[on his frequently ridiculed television debut in Snakedance: Part One (1983)] They sort of disinvested in that programme..."It's successful, don't spend much on it." I was sort of top dog on that planet and I thought I was rather good but I was just rubbish.