Landing the role of Stephen Hawking was the most positively surprising thing that has happened to me.

As an actor, you are aware of how a role can seep into your real life.

Knots Landing is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Upper class to me means you are either born into wealth or you're Royalty.

'Sherlock' fans are, by and large, an intelligent breed, so they've gone through my back catalogue and got what I've done, why and how I've done it. There is some obsessive behaviour, but I worry for them rather than me.

I'm not confident in social situations; just going up to someone in a bar and saying 'Hi' is going to be even more difficult because they won't know the real me. They will just know me as a fictional person I play on the screen.