I hate anything with 'celebrity' in the title, where people are playing to the cameras all the time.
I am lucky in that I have never been depressed in my life, but this is the one thing which has really affected me: the loss of my mother as I knew her.
You get pigeonholed. Some people are film stars, and some are theatre stars who do one-off telly. Somehow, I get into long-running series.
When I get some time off, I like to go back to my roots in the North East. My family have been around Northumberland for five generations.
While I'm driving north, I'm already thinking about kippers - it's worth the journey just to have kippers for breakfast on Saturday.
When I have time, I really enjoy cooking.
I initially thought 'Lewis' was a terrible idea. The character had very much been Morse's work donkey and sounding board. But I was persuaded to do it, thinking if it was a flop, at least ITV would stop asking me. But the pilot took off, so we got back on this moving train, and we've never looked back.
Mum had regular mental tests with her specialist, but because of her academic background, she became brilliant at manipulating them.
Let's just say I've never relied on my looks to make a living.
You can see some very great theatre actors who don't work at all well on screen. They're trying too hard at it.
You just suddenly think that there's something quite childish about acting. Basically, it's pretending, isn't it? It's good fun and I enjoy it, but it's a funny way of making a living, particularly when you make a very good wage, as I've been fortunate enough to do.
In TV, you just have to decide the night before exactly how you're going to say it and stick with that. You can't kick it around; you haven't got time.
McQueen is an astonishing film maker. He uses really unusual shots and builds incredible dramatic tension.
I love taking the boat to the Farne Islands, a few miles offshore. It has a National Trust bird sanctuary with seals and every sort of seabird you can imagine.
I read the papers like everybody else, so I don't complain about what they print.
When you get to the end of a TV series, you feel totally out of sorts as an actor. You feel unfit; your voice box has collapsed on you because you've spent all day muttering into a microphone that's two inches from your head, and you feel desperate to spread your wings and do a bit of real thesping.
I know actors who court personal publicity because they believe no publicity is bad publicity.
I honestly don't think I sought fame. It wasn't something I courted or wanted, particularly.
I don't see why it gives people the right to know about my private life if I don't want to talk about it.
