I've been dumped plenty of times, I can assure you of that.

With all due respect, I have a job to do, and that is to try and make 'Endeavour' the best it can be.

I just don't really like starting a job if I don't know where it finishes. I want to know where something begins and ends so that you can invest something in it.

Acting is an amazing job. I'm very lucky to do it, and when you're working with terrific people, telling stories you care about, and know it reaches an audience who care about it, too, there is an escapism in that.

With actors, all our ages are out there for all to see - you can't hide anything, really. And it's kind of a relief. This is my age, this is what I look like without makeup on - who cares? That youth culture - that lying about your age - it's all denial of death anyway.

I have an obsession with mortality. I saw a friend die when I was 18, and I can't get over it.

I now bid farewell to the country of my birth - of my passions - of my death; a country whose misfortunes have invoked my sympathies - whose factions I sought to quell - whose intelligence I prompted to a lofty aim - whose freedom has been my fatal dream.

I was only ever briefly angry with my dad for leaving us. It happened shortly after his death, when things were at their darkest and the grief in me was raw and at its worst.