I've always been interested in history, and it sounded fun, being exposed to things you're never normally exposed to.

Oh, I've taken lots of drugs, but as long as you get sleep and eat properly, you can get away with it.

We were being shunted around the country, and to get into the program's spirit we were cut off - not allowed to read newspapers, watch TV. No phones either. That wasn't a problem for me, but for a lot of people it was genuinely tricky. I ended up baking bread, but various people f---ed about. I think they should have been thrown off the show without pay, because in the past, if you messed around you'd be out on your ear and your family would have starved.

The work was just so hard in the past and people were treated like s---, I was never bottom of the pile, but Fern had to peel a pig's head, and Greg and Charlie had to skin a deer. Some people found it very, very difficult to suspend disbelief, though as an actor I was fine. It's just a game.

There's so much mythologizing around me, I don't like going to parties, I like having parties at home. And I've never been a great drinker. I only go to our local because the owners are friends of mine, normally after I've been playing cricket or golf.