Unmissable show?
As a wind-down, I love House Of Cards. And [Raza’s old show] Homeland as well. They just aired the first episode, and it’s been going down well. I watched the final season of Mad Men, of course. I’m going to miss it. It’s funny: I remember watching Entourage when it was coming to an end. It wasn’t the best season by the end of it, but just saying goodbye to those characters was sad. They grow with you, those shows.
Earliest TV memory?
I grew up on a diet of American cop shows. I used to love those. I remember my older brother would be watching Hill Street Blues, and it was way before I understood what was going on, but I would watch it anyway. It was getting into my psyche, I think. And also those volumes of shows like CHiPs, Knight Rider and Airwolf. A lot of Americans ask why there are so many Brits working in the States, and why so many are doing American accents, and I’m sure it’s because we learned as kids from these cop shows. We could read someone their rights in an American accent as a kid.
Bring back…
They could never do it, but The West Wing, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under. All of them ran their course, though. With these shows you’re disappointed when they go, but when you look at it, they’ve done up to 100 episodes by the end of them. Their stories have been told.
Pitch us a TV show?
I love the idea of bringing half-hour plays back to television. Plays that are written quickly and capture what’s going on in the news or the real world at that moment. Put two actors in an enclosed space and have the plays written just a week ago before you start shooting.
Mastermind specialist subject?
I’m a plane geek. I fly out here in the States, so it would be all things to do with aircraft. We’ve yet to have a decent show about planes, probably because I’d be the only one who’d watch it!
Code Black begins Thursday 29 October, 9pm, Watch
