If You're A Serious Actor,

Itv And The Production Company Contacted Me And Asked If I Fancied Playing The Role [of Maigret]. It Took Me A Long Time To Decide To Do It. In Fact, I Decided Not To. I Thought About It For Some Weeks, And Thought 'perhaps Not' And It Went Away For A While, And Then It Sort Of Came Back. They Said 'are You Sure You Don't Want To Play Him?', So I Thought About It For A Lot Longer Again, And Eventually Decided That I Would.

The One Thing I Would Never Wish It To Be Thought Is That You Play Serious Roles In Order To Achieve Some Sort Of Respectability Which You Can't If You're Playing Comedic Roles.

I'm Not Looking For Anything Other Than An Interesting Role To Play.

We Still Have A Tradition Certainly In English Television; It's Faded A Bit In The Last Five Years, But We Still Have A Tradition Where The Important Thing Is The Quality And The Challenging Nature Of The Programming.

I Would Never Wish To Say That I've Finally Waved Goodbye To Any Character, It's Just That The Emphasis Tends To Shift.