He spent hours and hours and hours practising these conjuring tricks. It's just such a curious thing.

Childhood didn't have a big influence on me, really - in fact I spent most of it plotting how to escape.

He always describes his characters' voices and their physique so brilliantly. As people have said, they are cartoons, caricatures. They're grotesques really.

Bleak House is just the most astounding piece of work. There's huge, visionary poetry in it.

The elderly are all someone's flesh and blood and we cannot just shut them in a cupboard and hand over the responsibility for taking care of them to the state.

Many actors have protested about mobile phones going off in theatres, but the real menace now is people texting during a show. It may only disturb a few people around them, but for me, as an actor, when I spot them answering their emails, I am outraged.