Parts like Morse don’t grow on trees. He’s a great character.

Watch the mouth, it reveals what the eyes try to hide.

The writers have built up the Morse and Lewis characters, and their relationship. You’re fascinated how these two men get to the result they get to.

Now are you going to save us a lot of time and trouble, Mr. Downes, and confess or are you going to be a burden on the tax payer?

There is no more final end than death.

He picked it up, draped it round my shoulders and said, ‘That’s better, now you look like a real member of The Sweeney’.

We all know that somebody did it, but how did they find the answer?

I feel very proud to have created a character that is so respected. On the other hand, as an actor, I have more freedom now to do other things.

We were using a hand-held camera to film the scene when Morse collapses. The camera wouldn’t start. Three times they said action and it still wouldn’t work. To this day, they still don’t know what...

I think Morse’s thing about being a poor policeman but a good detective is a very good description of him.

When he’s solved that particular clue, then he’s back to reality and he doesn’t like it. I think that’s why he drinks more than most.

I think sadly that Morse thinks that he can exist on his own and he only realises at the end that he can’t and never really has been able to. I feel sorry for him.

You can’t say to someone with a brain like Morse, This is the way you do it, regardless of the circumstances; this is the way it is done.

I was involved in school plays, but when I left school I did a couple of odd jobs as a baker’s apprentice and then as a fruit market porter in Manchester.

I’m an introspective person. I’m not an extrovert.

I’m not an instinctive actor.

In the same way he’s fascinated by crosswords, the puzzle of solving the murder is what drives him on.