The Barnaby Rudge scene was absolutely Patrick's suggestion. Mrs Gamp was me; I was determined that she would be in there.

It was a constant negotiation. And Patrick Garland, who directed it, made a huge contribution in those ways too.

I knew him a little bit socially, and obviously his book is the definitive biography, and I knew that he was interested in writing for the theatre.

I saw the very first episode in 1963, with William Hartnell as the Doctor, and decided it wasn't for me, so I missed the entire procession of Doctors that followed.

I get sent a lot of scripts which feature him as a kind of all-purpose Victorian literary character and really understand little, if anything, about him, his life or his books.

With Mrs Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit one hardly needed to go back to find out about her, she's so very vividly described by him.

The nicest thing they say, and they say it quite a lot is, "I've got to start reading Dickens all over again now; I know him in a completely new way."

When you look at English writers, Dickens is about the only person who fulfils these criteria. I thought, "Who could possibly write this?"

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.