I could, I think, quite easily have gone to Oxford. I got four good A levels, but my father’s income was such that I wouldn’t have got a grant, and he wouldn’t let me go to university, and that was the end of it.

If you turn down work because you are frightened of getting typecast, you’ll never do anything good.

I never have reservations about doing anything as long as I’m being paid.

I do adore food. If I have any vice it’s eating. If I was told I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, I could put up with sausage and mash forever.

I loathe cheese, it makes me ill.

One way of watering down the effects of violence is to approach it in a more lighthearted way. I don’t mean to say that you laugh when somebody has their arm sawn off, but you can diffuse fear with humour.

I was well aware of the fact that once you appeared in Doctor Who as something else, you were ruled out for the part of the Doctor: that was a kind of well known thing in the business.

It was lovely to do The Knock because I haven’t done anything really significant since Doctor Who.

I could, I think, quite easily have gone to Oxford. I got four good A levels, but my father’s income was such that I wouldn’t have got a grant, and he wouldn’t let me go to university, and that was the end of it.