What made you choose acting as a career?
I left my secondary modern school in 1961 at the age of 15 with no qualifications and no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I had various jobs, including a porter for an auction house, a porter at Middlesex Hospital, a mortuary porter, and I worked in sales for a tailor in Connaught Street. I ended up acting by accident when I joined an amateur company with the intention of helping out with the set design because I was quite good at art. At some point and so I took it on, found that I was good at it and got a lot of laughs. Therefore, out of a vast menu of job choices, this was the only one I was good at and so it kind of chose me. When I auditioned for five of the major drama schools I was offered places at all of them, but I chose RADA.
