Tim Pigott-Smith

When I get thinking, I get very knotted up. I chew things over a lot and take things quite seriously.

In television, I was first cast as a cavalry officer because of my name.

You can't keep a hero down, can you?

I would say that the money that was invested in me by Warwickshire Education Authority, which they did for five years, has been repaid a hundred times over. I have paid a lot more back to them in tax than they paid in support to me, but they helped me on my way - they launched me; they got me going.

If you can't educate your citizens and you can't keep them healthy, you can't begin to be a society.

When I was 16, we moved to live in Stratford-Upon-Avon. That was the year of Paul Scofield's 'Lear.' I think he is still widely perceived as the only actor who has got his flag at the top of the mountain.