Philip Glenister

Philip: (on saying goodbye to Gene Hunt): It's been great and it's been fun, but I need new challenges now. I want to move on.

Philip: (On his character Rupert Galvin in the upcoming series, Demons): He's a tricky one. He works in codes. He's a bit of a wordsmith - a bit of a riddler. We don't know much about his background. We find out about his relationship with Luke's father and that's about much as you're told. I seem to specialise in playing enigmas, which is quite fun in a way. People that can form their own opinions about them.

Philip: If I was 10 years younger, or didn't have children, I might have liked to go to Hollywood, but it's never been a burning desire and I can't be arsed now to start at the bottom of the pile. I'm too old and cynical to go cap-in-hand.

Philip: (On eighties television) I loved the '80s, I used to watch Dallas. And Howards' Way, wonderful stuff. Also Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Boys from the Blackstuff. It wasn't all rubbish.

Philip: (on the popularity of Gene Hunt) My only theory is, I think it's his lack of self-awareness. In a very image-conscious age, when everyone's obsessed with looking a certain way, this man comes along and says, 'This is what I am,' and I think people find that quite refreshing.

Philip: (on acting) There are 24 of you in your class at drama school and some of you can speak verse and some can't. But the guy who's going to be good at playing Hamlet isn't going to be any good at Gene Hunt. Know your limitations!

Philip: (on living in the Seventies) I was ten in 1973, growing up with power cuts, which was a laugh. It meant you couldn't do your homework. And then mother would come in with 15 candles, standing in the doorway, like Dracula.

Philip: (on his character Gene Hunt in Life on Mars) He's Wyatt Earp; he's the Sheriff who wears the badge. When I've been asked what genre you would put Life On Mars in, I say it's a Western. It's got everything that a great Western has: the frontier, the town, the characters and the Sheriff – and that Sheriff is Gene.

Philip: I'm a firm believer that there's an intelligent audience out there. They're given a load of crap most of the time, but, when they do get something good, they rejoice. [Life on Mars] proves that you can make something that's fairly populist and also critically successful and people will buy it.