Both 'The Wire' and 'Queer as Folk' had a big scope. They were panoramas, telling ambitious stories about two cities, Baltimore and Manchester, for the first time.
The Metropole Orchestra is like Count Basie or Duke Ellington with strings... it's strings that swing. Strings that swing like Dizzy Gillespie... keep swinging, baby. And when you have all of that special excellence of the Metropole Orchestra, then your music just flies - it soars in a way that's really magical.
The game is No. 1. You are an adjunct to the game. In a studio, there is no game. You are the star. That's why you are there. For the game, you can't go away from the game and beat your chest. People are there to watch the game. You are there to supplement, not to override or overwhelm.
I don't expect to see them in the top six but I think of all the teams that have come up in previous seasons, I think Manchester City are the biggest club.
Manchester City have been in the doldrums for a while, they came up and went straight back down again.
I was much more interested in the orchestra than the piano, but I did become fairly proficient as a pianist and my teachers felt I had talent and wanted me to become a good concert pianist and earn my living that way.
Directors have a tendency to use their hands like orchestra conductors. They don't realize that the actor is looking at their faces, anyway.
Regardless of whether it is playing for your school team or playing for Manchester United, winning is great.
The musical training taught me to focus my mind, before playing in an orchestra taught me how to truly concentrate. If you miss your moment in an orchestra, there is no forgiving.
I used to play works in progress to people, but now I wait 'til it's finished, because you make excuses all the time: 'Well, there's gonna be an orchestra on it.' Rather than make excuses, wait 'til it's finished, and then they can say they don't like it.
