There are lots of cops and robbers shows, but what attracted me to this part was that they've cut out all the jargon. There's no, 'Roger, Roger' or 'Over'. We simply answer the phone, 'Yeah, what do you want?'

It was a testosterone dream. It was like playing cops and robbers. I was looking forward to doing something new every day.

In terms of directors, great actors make directors - Gary Oldman was great to work with, for me; Tim Roth, too. You work with Scorsese and Spielberg and they were wonderful directors, but for me, working with actor/directors is special.

Every job I take, within minutes I'm thinking, 'I can't do this.' I think it's what makes me work. People think I just swagger in and do it. But I doubt myself all the time. It's what pushes me, what makes me work harder. The older I get, the less I take for granted.

At acting school people didn't speak like me. It was all received pronunciation - 'ow now brown cow.'

All the great Shakespeare plays are about killing. 'Alas, poor Yorick,' that's about death. And in 'Romeo and Juliet' everyone up ends up dying. The greatest dramas in the world are all about sex, violence and death.