I was very shy and had low self-esteem; the only way to stop yourself getting beaten up was to turn your hand to being an idiot. At the beginning, it was survival, and after that, it became second nature.

I joined an amateur drama group as a teenager, fell in love with theatre, and it totally changed my life.

A lot of TV has moved away from family viewing. But with 'The Royal Bodyguard,' we have tried to make a show when no one will be worried about sitting there with their kids or their grandma.

For me, the making of a documentary to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain was an intensely personal journey. I was born in February 1940, so I was just six months old as the battle raged overhead.

I can be intolerant.

I've met a lot of military men in my time. After they retire, they are still extremely game. They dress perfectly and have impeccable manners. They always end up as secretaries of golf clubs. I have great admiration for them.

I have a yellow labrador, Tuffy, and a little rescue dog, Bella, who is the boss.

I would like 'Frost' to go on forever, but you don't want people in the press hammering you, saying you've outstayed your welcome or that it's not believable anymore.

My father, Arthur, was a fishmonger, first at Billingsgate market and later in Camden Town and Golders Green.

How do I feel about being called a national treasure? I think it's marvellous if that's people's opinion. But I'd rather have the money than the label.

Comedy is a funny business, which you have to take seriously.

I started at the Incognito Theatre as an amateur.

I always say it is not the arrival; it is the journey.

I needed to be an actor more than anything.

It seems to me that as soon as politicians get in, they become part of this club, and the rest of us, beneath them, are just ants running about. They become besotted with their position.

That's humour - doing what funny people have done since comedy began without being edgy and pushing boundaries.

Journalists are out to trap me with my underwear showing.

I grew up in London, a city devastated by the bombing. I am, you might say, a Blitz Baby.

Being an actor is like being a monk: you have got to be dedicated.

I'm a twin, but only I emerged live from the womb. The fact that I was originally one half of a duo gave rise to a theory, much propounded in newspaper profiles, that my life has been one desperate effort to compensate for that stillborn brother.

You wouldn't want me to play Frost in a wheelchair, would you? 'Frost' is getting a little long in the tooth. I still enjoy doing it, and it's a great part, but I just think he's got to retire.

I will continue to entertain the great British public. Because that is what I love doing.

My mum, Olwen, was a bright and talkative woman who loved a gossip and a story and was given slightly to malapropisms. And she was Welsh, so, of course, she sang.

In this business, you have to have what they call an idiotic determination to succeed.