[on Barrie Keeffe] Barrie was a very important playwright. What he was articulating was actual anger. His plays were the equivalent of punk. Loud, aggressive, "What-about-me?" pieces of theatre.

[on acting] I've never been able to talk properly about it. I just do it. It's like asking a painter about painting. They dip the brush and put it on the canvas. All I know is that if something isn't brilliant, there's no reason that you can't deliver it to the best of your ability. You can make those four lines great.

Yes, we know he liked a drink and we know he was homosexual, but he still remains a terribly, terribly private man. All I had to go on was a couple of interviews - one after Corbett (Harry H. Corbett) died - and Brambell's autobiography. Unfortunately, the book doesn't really tell you anything. Off-stage, he was a bit of a dandy. Always immaculately turned out. Overcoat, hat, cane, clean-shaven, cut-glass English accent ... he even had a different set of teeth. (On playing Wilfrid Brambell in The Curse of Steptoe (2008))