If you ever meet an actor who's the child of actors, they'll never tell you that they wanted to be a star. But what I did realise early on was that I just wanted to be in that tribe.
When my father was a young actor, it is absolutely true that the vast majority were fairly middle class. Then all of a sudden, people like Albert Finney burst through and turned all that on its head.
I was a confident, outgoing little boy. If you're an only child, you're living in a very linguistically adult world, and you've got to keep up. So I did. Maybe I was slightly annoying.
I try to choose the projects that I think are the most well-written and well-executed, and the rest of it is so beyond my control to be almost not worth thinking about at all.
I try to choose the projects that I think are the most well-written and well-executed, and the rest of it is so beyond my control to be almost not worth thinking about at all.
My maternal grandmother, Penelope, was a very big figure in my life. She was a child of the Raj, born in India, a debutante who hobnobbed with royals, then married a Canadian, Bill Aitken, who became MP for Bury St Edmunds.
Cue actor platitude, but I've been very fortunate and worked pretty consistently and have felt rather annoyingly grateful that I got to do what I got to do.
In terms of the pilot, you have to introduce a lot of characters in a very short period of time, and you have to paint with slightly broad brush strokes because you just need to give an audience an idea of who these people might be.
Adult actors are really childish, and that's nice to be around when you're a kid. So the big reason I wanted to be an actor was I really enjoyed actors' company - which probably makes me about as shallow as a puddle. But it could be worse. I could be working for a living.
My parents divorced when I was seven. Because divorce is messy, for good or ill, they sent me to boarding school.
In terms of the pilot, you have to introduce a lot of characters in a very short period of time, and you have to paint with slightly broad brush strokes because you just need to give an audience an idea of who these people might be.
Cue actor platitude, but I've been very fortunate and worked pretty consistently and have felt rather annoyingly grateful that I got to do what I got to do.