Today the U.S. is farther from being nourished by poetry than it was a hundred years ago when books of poems were best-sellers.

Comedy. It was just huge in my house. Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness Monty Python and all those James Bond movies were highly regarded.

Today there are also buyers and sellers of all these energy commodities just like there are buyers and sellers of food commodities and many other commodities.

Comedy was why I got into acting the first place. Peter Sellers was a huge influence on my wanting to act. I grew up with him and found him hysterical. The Pink Panther films were an inspiration from my earliest childhood days when I was watching them with my brother and my dad.

I did not want to put myself on the line as an Australian playing Britain's greatest comic actor. The fans of Sellers are obsessive possessive - and aggressive. I did not want to risk their anger - or my own reputation.