Quotes from Kevin Whately

People think I'm thick because of the characters I play. I think I'm brighter than the characters. Well, I hope I am.

Being a grandparent is whole new phase in your life.

I only really like to watch things like 'Time Team.' I'd rather be out walking the dog. It's all reality TV, which, as an actor, I detest.

Oxford is a funny place, as it is a mixture of town and gown. You have the students at the main university and at Oxford Brookes, but there is also a big working-class community.

I hate anything with 'celebrity' in the title, where people are playing to the cameras all the time.

With your own children, you love them immediately - and with grandchildren, it's exactly the same.

The real reason I love Bamburgh is that it's the only place in the world where I ever truly relax.

I'm not very relaxed; I always need to be doing something.

I've been going to Bamburgh for holidays since I was a child.

I feel very at home in woodlands and could easily live there. I should have been one of Robin Hood's men.

I still remember going to a smart restaurant in Los Angeles, and the maitre d' knew my name and showed me straight to a table even though we hadn't booked. I get stopped for autographs by people from Sweden on the tops of mountains.

People are very appreciative, and I'm always thrilled at how long the 'Morse' films have lasted. They seem to have an afterlife that goes on and on for decades, which is touching.

I initially thought 'Lewis' was a terrible idea. The character had very much been Morse's work donkey and sounding board. But I was persuaded to do it, thinking if it was a flop, at least ITV would stop asking me. But the pilot took off, so we got back on this moving train, and we've never looked back.

Oxford has a slightly mythical rep, particularly for people who haven't been there.

I honestly don't think I sought fame. It wasn't something I courted or wanted, particularly.

Dementia is often regarded as an embarrassing condition that should be hushed up and not spoken about. But I feel passionately that more needs to be done to raise awareness, which is why I became an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society.

My mum Mary was always a bright, confident and fiercely independent lady.

From the time you are a tiny baby, a parent's love is usually unconditional. Whatever you do, your parents think you are the tops, but when their memory goes, you stop recouping the love you've put in.

While I'm driving north, I'm already thinking about kippers - it's worth the journey just to have kippers for breakfast on Saturday.

When I get some time off, I like to go back to my roots in the North East. My family have been around Northumberland for five generations.

I'm not interested in more money for the sake of it.

In TV, you just have to decide the night before exactly how you're going to say it and stick with that. You can't kick it around; you haven't got time.

McQueen is an astonishing film maker. He uses really unusual shots and builds incredible dramatic tension.

I'm very good at being out of work.