You may wonder why my film viewing ranges from the distant past to the present day, or you may well not. Either way, I'm going to talk about it regardless.

I grew up in a time when classic and not so classic films were broadcast on television with surprising regularity. Laurel & Hardy, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby,
Johnny Weissmuller, Cary Grant, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Abbot & Costello & oh so many more were familiar names to me...

...before the age of 12. I loved little better than settling down in front of the television to have these flickering images take me to places I'd never been.

I tried of course, to copy the mannerisms & style of many of these people. Action, adventure, romance, comedy, drama, slapstick, it was all nectar to me.

Naturally my viewing was also peppered with movies from what was then, the present day but to me, although the faces & styles changed, the spirit of the flickering image remained the same. I was entranced by this magic. Still am.

I've spoken about my epiphany before but truth be told, I was bitten long before that moment, I just didn't know it.

In later years I could never understand the mindset of not wanting to watch black & white movies because they were boring. "You're missing out" I thought, and often said...generally to deaf ears.

When I became an actor, I realised that for me at least, it was important to know what had come before, to not only show my respect to the magnificent people who had made me laugh, cry, think, and feel but to learn how they did it.

And I'm still learning, still going back & forward in time to watch & take on board the many different styles of movie acting. Still trying to work out why a day player can catch my eye and imagination and why the lead doesn't.

I am fascinated by it all. Fascinated by the process of not just acting but of movie making too.

Even after 20+ years of working in and around movies, every day is a chance to learn something new, to get better.

It's bloody brilliant and I have been more fortunate than many but those years spent as a boy, sitting in front of those flickering images from a time long before I was born, were a good kicking off point for me.

So I travel in time, via the medium of the motion picture. Ever curious, ever enthralled and ever grateful that even if it all ended tomorrow, I had the chance to play too.