Audience participation

What do you consider your favourite aspect of acting? My life has been fascinating, my love affair with the audience. And the audience really is part of it, it's the part that makes it live. Your performance, whatever it is, doesn't matter, what the medium is doesn't come to life until the audience join you. They are the missing part of the whole operation and then, when the listen, when they watch, it then it becomes apparent what it's all about.

I find that in each part of my life I've changed. If you go through decade after decade - and that isn't an exaggeration, because I've had six decades or more - it becomes more interesting. The parts you get change with you, the company you get changes with you and the audience reaction to you not only changes with you, but they also remember through television and film very much what you used to be and how one has influenced the other.

I have played theatre, television, film, radio, voice-overs - things like that, so I cover the whole gamut. I'm always jumping from one to the other, but the most important one of all is the theatre. The theatre is where you reach your audience, where you reach literally.

You're there with them and it's so helpful when you're doing something [where] you have no audience, because it teaches you the way to reach them. So, without realising it, the influence of your working in theatre becomes paramount when you're working on something like this because you know you're doing it for somebody to listen to. It's a lovely feeling if you know that - it helps the way you do it.