'Born Free' was the first film I ever saw. I just fell in love with the idea of people having that bond with a wild animal.

An awful lot of people have childhood memories of holidays in Cornwall, and the holidays are old-fashioned and hugely successful. You stick a child and a dog on one of the beaches, and they just light up; they just love it.

I saw the human-animal bond in another way. It's a survival and a sustenance kind of bond - and that bond is going to be disrupted by bird flu.

Nobody just flops a complete 'Doc Martin' script on the desk. They all have to be taken apart and all the apologizing taken out. Because it's hard to have a protagonist that doesn't really like anyone and nobody really likes him; it's a hard premise to start from.

You do get into a groove, which is great, when you get to act with the same people a lot. Like with Caroline Catz - it's like a duet: you're like a duo jamming together.

If I ever saw an amputee getting hanged, I'd probably just start calling out letters.