I hated Sundays when I was growing up in Streatham, south London. Everything closed down and stopped.

You could say Shakespeare is so extraordinary precisely because he was so ordinary. He had all the usual anxieties and understandings of what it is to have children, lose children, get married, struggle to make a living and so on.

When the BBC decided to bring Doctor Who back as a feature film a few years ago, one national newspaper ran a poll to ask its readers who should be the new Doctor, and I topped it.

Having caught a glimpse of what I might be able to do with my talent, I feel a tremendous obligation to try to fulfill it.

It's great when people have the confidence to discuss their sexuality if it works for them. I can't fault someone for not coming out, because I don't know their journey, what scares them, what's at stake, or how it will affect their personal life or family.

I think mortality makes you live a fuller existence. When I was a kid I was scared of death, and maybe that's what made me desperate to get the most out of life.

My biggest bits of advice are, write as much as you can, finish what you start, get a thick skin, don't take crap from anyone, but also live your life and have fun. The stereotype of a writer holed up alone all day is really unhelpful. You can't write real people and real emotion if you don't let yourself experience them.

Every day I learn something new, and, you know, you go through life's experiences, and if you can bring every experience at some point somewhere in every drama or every story that you have to portray, you will come across an emotion or a feeling you have had some point in your life.