Kevin Whately Quotations

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.

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.

Walking is my main method of relaxation. I don't go over my lines or try to solve the world's problems, I just enjoy the scenery and the wildlife.

With something like cancer, there is a feeling that you can fight it in some way or control your response to it, but with dementia there is the fear of losing control of your mind and your life.

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

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.

Mum had regular mental tests with her specialist, but because of her academic background, she became brilliant at manipulating them.

You can't converse with Alzheimer's sufferers in the way you do with others; the dialogue tends to go round in circles.

With all the lines I have to learn for TV scripts, I don't think I have any problems with forgetfulness - that's brain exercise enough for me.

Before my mother's diagnosis with Alzheimer's, I had heard of the disease, but hadn't known anyone who had suffered from it.

I wish people would take more care of the countryside.

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

Being a grandparent is whole new phase in your life.

Being in Oxford can be a bit like being on holiday - there's plenty of time spent in the pub.

I don't like two-dimensional characters who are obviously villains from the moment they walk on stage.

I don't see why it gives people the right to know about my private life if I don't want to talk about it.

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

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

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

I know actors who court personal publicity because they believe no publicity is bad publicity.

I never have liked detective dramas. I try to watch all of them to see what's going on, but I don't like them.

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.

I read the papers like everybody else, so I don't complain about what they print.

I suppose it's a sentimental thing, but I wouldn't want to do more 'Lewis' than we did 'Morse' because I do still think of it as an offshoot.

I wanted to be a stage actor but I got stuck on television. It took a couple of years to get used to.

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

I'm not particularly fond of the past, but I do ramble on about it quite a bit.

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

I'm the captain of the Variety Club over in England, and so I'm playing golf for them once a week but doing odd bits.

I'm very good at being out of work.

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

It always staggers me when series don't use their sidekicks.

Let's just say I've never relied on my looks to make a living.

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

My family have been around Northumberland for five generations.

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

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

The more telly you do, the more it feels like a factory.

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

When I came down south, I went to one of the early Wigan Challenge Cup victories at Wembley, and I was totally hooked from then.

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.

When I have time, I really enjoy cooking.

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

You can see some very great theatre actors who don't work at all well on screen. They're trying too hard at it.

You get pigeonholed. Some people are film stars, and some are theatre stars who do one-off telly. Somehow, I get into long-running series.

You're very aware in the theater by the response you get, but not so much on television, obviously.

I am lucky in that I have never been depressed in my life, but this is the one thing which has really affected me: the loss of my mother as I knew her.

I catch an old 'Morse' on ITV3. I've never thought I looked particularly like my son. He's taller than me and blond. But when I see Lewis walk into a room with John Thaw, it's like my son has just come onto the screen. That's very strange indeed!

I love taking the boat to the Farne Islands, a few miles offshore. It has a National Trust bird sanctuary with seals and every sort of seabird you can imagine.

I loved Martin Offiah, Andy Farrell and Shaun Edwards in that Wigan team, and they are still heroes today. They were outstanding players and great to watch.

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.

I'm fascinated by politicians, because I suspect the huge majority of them go into it full of ideas and for the best possible reasons but end up being hijacked.

I'm not interested in more money for the sake of it. You're aware that if you're nicking all the budget, somebody else is getting threepence ha'penny, or the production values aren't going to be so high.

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.

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.

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.

Put me on telly, and I think I have a relaxation on camera that makes an audience relax, too. It's not a conscious thing. Cameras don't bother me, whereas other people try to perform to them.

When you get to the end of a TV series, you feel totally out of sorts as an actor. You feel unfit; your voice box has collapsed on you because you've spent all day muttering into a microphone that's two inches from your head, and you feel desperate to spread your wings and do a bit of real thesping.

You just suddenly think that there's something quite childish about acting. Basically, it's pretending, isn't it? It's good fun and I enjoy it, but it's a funny way of making a living, particularly when you make a very good wage, as I've been fortunate enough to do.

She thought it would work and she was very encouraging.

I don't think of it as coming back - I'm trying to fight the idea that this is Morse revisited. It's the same character, but without John inevitably it's going to be a very different animal. A lot of the old Morse fans will tune in and I want to play down the expectations that it will be Morse, because it can't be. John was a particularly special actor - in my view he was the best TV actor we've ever had - so you want to aim high. But you can't expect it to be Morse. It's Lewis.

Wife wants to see Cats, don't know why, she?s allergic to them.

As a character we've got a head start because of Inspector Morse's popularity. In other ways we're slightly hamstrung by the character's original function. Lewis was always created as a foil, as a sounding board, for the amazing mind that Morse had - and you can't suddenly pretend that Lewis has that sort of mind.

The ghost of Morse in the script was one of the things that attracted me to it.