- I wasn't always such a great fan of Shakespeare, mind you. I can guess we all at one time had it rammed down our necks at school, which tends to take the edge off it.
- A year later, and I'm average again.
- Any horror element is as much psychological as special effects.
- Culturally, we've always felt it important to express the life of the country, and working class comes into that.
- I came out of school in '79 when unemployment was really starting to bite, went back and redid my O-levels, there was a play going on and I was corralled into it.
- I care more about telly because it made me an actor and there's a much more immediate response to TV. You can address the political or cultural fabric of your country.
- [on his accent in Doctor Who (2005) - although he was wrong because Sylvester McCoy clearly had a Scottish accent] I'm different from the other Doctors in that I'm northern. All the others spoke with this RP accent [received pronunciation] - maybe it was that that put me off. I think that it's good that we teach kids that people who speak like that can be heroic.
- My bony face is like a car crash. I haven't got good looks, just weird looks, enough to frighten the fiercest monster.
- Theatre is an actor's medium. Film and television is primarily a director's medium. When you act in the theatre you get a four to six week rehearsal period, where you can build a character, and of course each evening when you give a performance, you have the final edit. So theatre acting is my great love. But I've had some very interesting and rewarding experiences in front of the camera.
- If I had my choice, I would exclusively do theatre, if I could justify it financially. Theatre in my country is by and large very lowly paid, so actors have to supplement it with television and film work, if they're fortunate enough to be able to do that.
- I enjoy American television. I've got three particular favorites: The Larry Sanders Show (1992), Deadwood (2004) and NYPD Blue (1993). I admire them all for very different reasons. One's a very broad, naturalistic satiric comedy. Deadwood's a fantastic take on the Western genre, and NYPD Blue, I thought the writing and the acting was extraordinary.
- The best thing about Doctor Who (2005) for me has been the response I've had from children, both in the street and the number of letters and drawings of me and Daleks, which are all over my wall at home. In all the 20 years I've been acting, I've never enjoyed a response so much as the one I've had from children and I'm carrying that in my heart forever.
- Did you ever believe that seven o'clock on a Saturday night there'd be a Manc on one side and a Geordie on the other? When I was growing up, everybody sounded like Tom Baker.
- [on Doctor Who (2005)] I was open-minded but I decided after my experience on the first series that I didn't want to do any more. I didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in. I wasn't comfortable. I thought "If I stay in this job, I'm going to have to blind myself to certain things that I thought were wrong." And I think it's more important to be your own man than be successful, so I left. But the most important thing is that I did it, not that I left. I really feel that, because it kind of broke the mold and it helped to reinvent it. I'm very proud of it.
- I don't really do heroes. Heroes are dangerous because it's very unrealistic to elevate people to heroic status. Lennon (John Lennon) was somebody I admired but I came to him quite late. And there was no doubt he was somebody who could be quite difficult to love.
- [on Accused (2010)] Writing of this quality doesn't come along too often. I have great respect and affection for Jimmy (Jimmy McGovern). We go back 17 years now, and this is the sixth time I've worked for him. He's been the spine of my career.
- No matter how big a name you are, how many big series you've been in or how good looking you are, in the end, all actors are secondary to the writer.
- I've kept my word with the audience and not fed them rubbish. I've done some rubbish elsewhere, though, and I've let myself down in that way. But I think I can hold my head up - I don't think I've ever done it for the money on British telly. I always choose roles with my heart.
- I confess I don't watch much film or television drama but I'm aware of the preponderance of white, male roles. There's not enough writing for women or people of colour. It frustrates me when they insist on doing all-male Shakespearean productions - a wonderful intellectual exercise maybe, but it's outrageous because it's putting a lot of women out of work.
- Culturally we've always felt it important to express the life of the country, and working class comes into that.
- I love my accent, I thought it was useful in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) because the standard villain is upper class or Cockney. My Northern accent would be an odd clash opposite Nic Cage.
- In all the 20 years I've been acting, I've never enjoyed a response so much as the one I've had from children and I'm carrying that in my heart forever.
- I think theatre is by far the most rewarding experience for an actor. You get 4 weeks to rehearse your character and then at 7:30 pm you start acting and nobody stops you, acting with your entire soul.
- I think the themes of belonging and parentage and love are obviously universal.
- Often as a child you see someone with a learning disability or Down's Syndrome and my mum and dad were always very quick to explain exactly what was going on and to be in their own way inclusive and welcoming.
- [a message at a BFI celebration of Doctor Who (1963)'s 50th anniversary] I love the BFI. I love the Doctor and hope you enjoy this presentation. Joe Ahearne directed five of the 13 episodes of the first series. He understood the tone the show needed completely - strong, bold, pacy visuals coupled with wit, warmth and a twinkle in the performances, missus. If Joe agrees to direct the 100th anniversary special, I will bring my sonic and a stair-lift and - providing the Daleks don't bring theirs - I, the ninth Doctor, vow to save the universe and all you apes in it.
- [on Our Friends in the North (1996)] I was standing on the set of Shallow Grave (1994) and Danny Boyle said, 'I've read something you'd like.' I got hold of the scripts and read them in one sitting. There's a scene in which Nicky's embittered idealist dad, Felix - played by the wonderful Peter Vaughan - is savaged by a dog on a council estate. He is effectively destroyed by everything he felt he'd failed to create as a socialist. I thought it was an absolutely brilliant piece of writing. I knew it was event television from that single scene.
- Many times I've sat with a camera and another actor and seen all their fears and insecurities and struggles. You want to support them and help them as much as you can.
- We all need a firm sense of identity.
- I don't see a lot of films. I'm quite choosy, but there's certain films that stick out.
- The money is better in films and television. But in terms of acting, theatre is more rewarding.
- It can be very difficult to trace your birth parents.
- I've never been up with the times, always been slightly out of step.
- I had bags of energy as a kid.
- Lots of middle class people are running around pretending to be Cockney.
- I love Dead Ringers (2002). A democratic set, the work was taken seriously.
- I don't like to watch playback. But being on the set, watching the way the camera is being moved and the way the light is being used, you do get an idea of it.
- I only ever worked on interiors, and an interior is an interior. I don't know what they did about exteriors.
- Television, although It's in steep decline, still occasionally gives voices to people who don't have voices.
- I heard the various terms of abuse at school and probably indulged them in the way you do as a kid.
- On The Others (2001), very atmospheric and probably mysterious is how I would say it felt to be on the set. It felt just a little uneasy, the atmosphere that we were trying to capture.
- I think film and television are really a director's medium, whereas theatre is the actor's medium.
- I had to help to coax the performances and I really enjoyed that extra responsibility.
- Jacobean plays, before Shakespeare, were particularly visceral.
- I got a tiny part in a play, auditioned for another one and got that as well. Not only that, the first finished on the Saturday and the other started on the Monday which is like an actor's dream!
- I used my instincts. It's very easy to imagine how you'd feel, actually. I just had to tell the narrative.
- I care more about telly because it made me an actor and there's a much more immediate response to TV. You can address the political or cultural fabric of your country.
- The person who gives you your first job is so important in any industry.
- Twelve years on sets watching directors, I've taken a bit from everybody and rejected a lot.
- We like to think that our parents made a decision to bring us into the world.
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