Top 10 Colin Salmon Quotes

It’s fantastic that ‘Strictly’ is beating ‘The X Factor’ for many reasons – but one of the main reasons is I think it’s a fantastic piece of variety television. It is live, varied TV whereby we are really hanging ourselves out by the seam of our pants.

I am a father, and sometimes I want to stay close to home. By varying the workplace, it gives me space to breathe. I enjoy theatre because it reminds me I’m mortal, and it’s terrifying when it goes wrong but the most thrilling experience when it flies.

‘The Bank Job’ was great fun to work on. Roger Donaldson is a top director, and working on HD was a new experience. It picks up every detail, which is a blessing and a curse if you think about it.

The Loden in Vancouver, where I stayed when I was filming ‘The Arrow,’ is a family-run hotel with a fantastic restaurant, great facilities, and brilliant people.

I can’t take 24-hour news. Life is what it is, and we can handle it, but when you’re getting it pushed down your throat, it’s too much.

I started to watch ‘Play for Today’ and plays like ‘Cathy Come Home,’ and Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Billy’ trilogy in the 1980s, which took us into the world of the Belfast family. As a kid in Luton, how was I ever going to know that world otherwise?

I liked ‘Z Cars’ – just hearing the music got me going! ‘Coronation Street’ was massive in our house. My mum used to say Ena Sharples reminded her of Gran, which she wouldn’t have been happy to hear!

I’m a trumpet player, and I sing jazz.

I grew up on a council estate in Luton, and as a child, I was very much into the brass-band tradition. I was basically a Salvation Army boy. My English granddad bought me a cornet when I was five years old.

In Britain I love spending time at the St. James’s, the Jumeirah Carlton Tower on Cadogan Place, and the Mayfair Hotel. We’ve got some spectacular hotels tucked away in London, but because I live there, I don’t get to spend as much time in them as I probably would like to.