I wanted to be a stage actor but I got stuck on television. It took a couple of years to get used to.

With your own children, you love them immediately - and with grandchildren, it's exactly the same.

You can't converse with Alzheimer's sufferers in the way you do with others; the dialogue tends to go round in circles.

I'm very good at being out of work.

With all the lines I have to learn for TV scripts, I don't think I have any problems with forgetfulness - that's brain exercise enough for me.

My mum Mary was always a bright, confident and fiercely independent lady.

With something like cancer, there is a feeling that you can fight it in some way or control your response to it, but with dementia there is the fear of losing control of your mind and your life.

Walking is my main method of relaxation. I don't go over my lines or try to solve the world's problems, I just enjoy the scenery and the wildlife.

People think I'm thick because of the characters I play. I think I'm brighter than the characters. Well, I hope I am.

I've been going to Bamburgh for holidays since I was a child.

My family have been around Northumberland for five generations.

None of our achievement matters, than how we have lived our lives.

It's the contradiction of life, if I were with them, I would only wish to be far away. Now that I am far away, all I do is wish for one more day surrounded by them

One thing appears reasonably certain, and that's that those who make allegations of a culture of deception, of intimidation or cover-up need to be extremely careful about such accusations.

For all the courage that we never had, I'm just about glad.

All of us who served in one war or another know very well that all wars are the glory and the agony of the young.

How we live our lives gives those we love permission to do the same. That is a power and a responsibility that we can never take lightly.

All that happens when your dreams come true is a slow, melting realization that it wasn't what you thought.

We will welcome them with bullets and shoes.

I'm not going to make it a target, but it's something to aim for.

Everything is valuable under the right conditions. To a man dying of thirst, water be more precious than gold. To a drowning man, water be of little worth and great trouble.