Quotes

[speaking in 2007] There may be things wrong with TV in this country, but I spent six weeks in Los Angeles last year and what we have in the UK is like manna from heaven compared to American TV. Okay, they have some great programmes that we see over here like The Sopranos (1999), but that is surrounded by dross and adverts. I still think we do great TV drama and that is a benchmark, but I think we have to be careful that we don't get too blasé about it.

[speaking in 2007] In the eighties you went for a TV job and you met the director and producer, and they decided whether to cast you in the role. You went along and you read with another actor or you met the cast. Now you have to go before a committee. I have to say it's bloody galling when you have been in the game as long as I have. You also get typecast easily. People only think of you in your last role, in my case Hustle (2004). If I were up for a costume drama, a committee would say, 'He doesn't do costume, he does Hustle (2004).' That's how television has changed. Your qualities as an actor are valued less now than they were in the past and it is a far more formal process. I think most actors find that. Technically, working in TV is much quicker these days. It's a bit like working on the hop. There was a time when if you filmed two pages a day that would be okay. Now it has to be six a day because TV is very expensive. And I think that when analogue changes to digital it will be spread even thinner. Twenty years ago you had two weeks' studio rehearsal for a teleplay but now as an actor you have to make decisions very quickly. Before, you could think about them and discuss. Today you have one day's rehearsal if you are lucky and you turn up for shooting. You hope you have a director who is making the right decisions and if you haven't, you're on your own.