My idea of a great holiday is not to go out. It's to find somewhere where I'm not confronted by people coming up to me and saying, 'You're Art Malik, aren't you?' It's quite nice sometimes not to be recognised.

When will we get a female director-general of the BBC? Where is the colour when you go further up the food chain? It disappears.

Not until somebody turns round and says, 'Art, how do you fancy playing Charles Dickens? How do you fancy playing Prince Charles in this biopic?' Until those movements come, then no, we haven't got past anything.

I've had a fantastic career playing great parts. In many ways, the colour of my skin has been an asset because I've been asked to play certain roles as a result. I don't apologise for playing them anymore than Robert de Niro is sorry for playing American-Italians.

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.

If you don't have public hangings for bad culture in a company, if you don't take people out and let them say, they went home to spend more time with the family. It's crazy.

I've been away from my family even when I was in France.

My family for several generations have been members of the Unitarian Church.