Actor

I could say, 'I want to play a French-African humpback,' but I probably won't get that role.

I love that pre-mod jazz look of the late Fifties, the Steve McQueen style that influenced the British modernists.

There are still things technically about films that I think are a mystery to me and I want to remain a mystery. I don't particularly want to know what everyone's job is because I've got lines to learn.

My idea of a good night out is staying in.

It's more fun playing someone who isn't just a bad guy.

I've always loved Christmas and that's not really gone away from me from being a child to now. It's always a magical time and I'm unashamed in my love for Christmas.

I don't like affectation.

I want to inspire children to be obsessed over jewellery.

Are there many Tims in America? I don't know if I can think of many American Tims.

'Sherlock' is one of the biggest things I will do, ever - we could never have predicted that level of insanity around the series.

Whenever someone says to my mum: 'How's your son doing?' she says: 'Which one?' If you're a parent, you're not going to go: 'Oh I'll concentrate on the famous one.'

I'm quite a disciplinarian: I can be a shouter. But I can be a very demonstrative kisser and hugger.

I've been doing interviews for years, and in all that time, I've virtually never read one and gone, 'Yep, factually and tonally that's exactly what happened.' Pretty much never.

We can all look on the Internet and go, 'He hates me! Oh, but she loves me. Oh, but he hates me,' you know. And that way, madness lies.

As an actor, you know there are things you get asked to do that you do quite well, with less effort.

There are about 20 people in my life that I want to love me, and none of them are the 'Daily Mail.'

In London we give ourselves a pat on the back, rightly, for not killing one another, for our prejudice being subtle rather than lethal.

I think the hardest part about anything you do for 18 months is just keeping yourself together for 18 months.

Americans assume all British people have at least one servant.

My job as an actor is for you, so why should my private life be for you, too? That's not fair.