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" Everybody wants a movie career. I found that pretty elusive. I did make a movie with Martin Sheen about a nuclear scientist who has a religious experience. I don't even know what it was called. I don't think it was ever released. "

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" When I grew up, in the time of 'Look Back in Anger,' the theatre was very exciting, a place where you felt that social comment could lead to social change. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

Change

You

Time

" I'm quite sharp but not particularly academic. "

" Perhaps it's an accident of nationality, but the English treasure subtlety and appreciate not having everything spelled out for them, while Americans want everything made apparent. "

" The Almeida's artistic director, Rupert Goold, brought me Mike Bartlett's 'King Charles III' with the slightly apologetic warning that it was in blank verse, but, of course, that appealed to me. "

" Villains are always the best roles, but that meant that for months afterwards, all I got offered were absolute cads and bounders and really nasty pieces of work, as well as a lot of people who only had one arm. Such is the limited imaginative power, you see, of a great many casting directors. "

" Slower television actually credits the audience with a higher level of intelligence. "

" 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. "

" After 'Jewel In the Crown,' I hardly worked at all for about six months - which came as a bit of a surprise, I have to admit. "

" After a West End run, in which I was promoted to Laertes, I joined the RSC in 1972. I had fulfilled my dream. "

" The worst nickname I ever had was Tim Pig-ears-Smith. I had big ears. When I was younger, it was more pronounced. So I felt huge sympathy towards Prince Charles over that. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

Over

Worst

" I have only met Prince Charles once, when he was very charming and easy to chat to. I have always had a soft spot for him, and I admire our constitutional monarchy, but Charles often comes across as eccentric, and he has a mixed press. "

" When you've won the war, you're faced with the problem of winning the peace. "

" There is something about the way I photograph. People often say, 'Are you cross with me?' My eyes can look sort of... like a wall. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

You

Say

" Performing King Charles in Mike Bartlett's astonishing play in London and New York has been one of the high points of my career. "

" When 'Jewel' was screened, old friends from school and university got back in touch. More than one of them told me that their partners hated Merrick so much they could not think of having me in the house. This kind of audience identification does not happen in any other medium. "

" Occasionally, there are programmes - like 'The Office' or 'Gavin and Stacey,' perhaps - where you get the feeling everybody's seen it. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

Seen

Feeling

" I adore Biarritz. I first went there in the Eighties, and my wife and I liked it so much that we ended up buying a holiday home there. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

Holiday

Wife

" Understand me, Hollywood miniseries are very popular in England. But British miniseries make a tremendous mark on the national consciousness. They become part of the national culture and mythology... at least for a time. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

Hollywood

Understand

" Hollywood's best producers and directors are in film, not TV. "

" I'm not a big fan of the Mediterranean, but being in the Bay of Biscay, the sea is forever changing, and on a clear day, you see as far as Spain. It's incomparable. "

" You never learn to act in front of a camera. You never learn anything in front of a camera. But you learn to act in a rehearsal room with a good play and a good cast and a good director. "

" People wrote about me and started calling me a star, and I just hated it. There are aspects of it that are great - I mean, you can ring up any restaurant and get in, can't you. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

People

Great

" You wouldn't read 'Anna Karenina' and try to work on the computer at the same time, would you? "

" My parents were fantastic. I was an only child, so I had a lot of love and too much attention. I don't think I was spoilt. My mother was quite a disciplinarian, but I did have a lot of attention and quite a lot of pressure to do well at whatever I was doing. "

" I didn't like my first primary school in Leicester very much. As I was going home on my tricycle one day, I said, 'There's no reading, no writing and no arithmetic - it's really boring!' So I was sent to St John the Baptist Church of England Primary. "

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

" People are fed up with broadcasters pushing the boundaries too far. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

Boundaries

Too

" What makes Biarritz special, as far as I'm concerned, are the fantastic coastline, the beaches - such as the Cotes des Basques - and the sea. "

" When I have a good performance, I'm wrecked at the end of it. I feel completely empty, and tears are pouring down my face - I'm just gone. "

" 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. "

Tim Pigott-Smith

Education

Money