Quotes

I took a gamble in becoming an actor and my dream job has been realised.

I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation. I see myself as a performer and that applies to a Greek drama or a modern comedy.

I had to escape the destruction of my father's bankruptcy and all that difficulty.

You get a lot of people requesting photographs but I tend to keep myself to myself, pull my cap down.

I would have loved to have been a footballer like my great uncle Matt Busby, but I knew quite early on that I wasn't going to make the grade. Luckily I was told by the age of 13 that I wasn't good enough. That's not a bad thing. You see this 'X Factor' generation of kids now who don't accept that they're not good enough.

I'm single, I'm looking for something meaningful.

I'm more rooted in new plays and new writing.

I'd seen a play of 'Richard III' in Coventry when I was 15, which sowed the seeds that you could act for a living.

I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation.

I can pretty much say all of us know when 'Downton' is going to end. This is a show with a finite life.

Am I a household name? I still can't get my head around that.

My dad was a master butcher and I trained to be a butcher when I left school. I didn't enjoy it at the time but I love cooking now, so perhaps I would have been a chef.

You can't be a casual observer of something humorous - you have to engage, you have to find it funny for the relationship between actor and audience to work.

I'm going to be 50 soon. I'm single, I'm looking for something meaningful. By the time you've been single for quite a long time, you can get quite specific about what you can and can't put up with.

I left school at 16 but I wish I'd gone to university - I think I would have studied English literature. I had a knack for that. But I don't think you have the kind of wisdom at 16 to make that decision.

When I was in my 30s, I was at the end of a long-term relationship and going through a very hard time. I'd had about 15 different addresses and a series of relationships. I thought, 'It's time to have a look at yourself.'

It's not something that's at the forefront of my mind, but I think I'd regret it if I didn't have children.

The qualities I am looking for in Miss Right are intelligence and humour.

Sometimes I think I missed out on things like travelling. I'd have been terrified of missing an audition. I didn't start a family because that's not something I take lightly. Acting meant so much to me.

I think with Sky and BBC Three and Channel 4, there are some great television platforms, and the stand-up movement in this country is phenomenal. It's like rock n' roll here. Britain's a funny place and there's a lot of funny people coming out of there and a lot of people are finding mediums to express themselves.

Britain's a funny place and there's a lot of funny people coming out of there and a lot of people are finding mediums to express themselves.

If this TV success had come in my twenties and I'd become a heart-throb, I would have been very stupid. I would have got into a lot of situations that I really wished I hadn't.

Acting meant so much to me.

I see myself as a performer and that applies to a Greek drama or a modern comedy.

By the time you've been single for quite a long time, you can get quite specific about what you can and can't put up with.