I Think In Many Ways Johnny English

[maigret Sets A Trap] Was Always Going To Be The First Film, And It Seemed To Be Quite A Nice Story. But Of Course It Meant That Here I Was Playing This New Character For The First Time, In A Place Where He Had Been A Relative Failure, As All These People Had Been Murdered And The Pressure Was On. Rather Than Starting Optimistically With His Pipe In Front Of The Fireplace, He Was In Quite A Difficult Place.

I Tend To Play Rather Odd Men. People That Are Slightly Odd Or Eccentric, Or Have A More Particular Attitude To Life.

Certainly In The Second Film [maigret's Dead Man], Which Is Quite A More Unpleasant And Darker Story, It's Quite Different In Tone And Feel.

This Is Sort Of Inflection-free Acting [playing Maigret], And I Really Wasn't Sure If I Could Do It - You Make Your Mind Up On Whether I've Succeeded Or Not. But Yes, I Found It Difficult When We Were Shooting; It Was A Couple Of Weeks Before I Settled Into Not Worrying - To Finding A Way Of Delivering Those Lines - So My Worries Of Many Months Before I Think Had Been Justified. I Found It A Difficult Way Of Being.

I Have Always Regarded Mr. Bean As A Timeless, Ageless Character, And I Would Rather He Be Remembered As A Character Mostly In His 30s And 40s.