Art Malik

I've had a fantastic career playing great parts. In many ways, the colour of my skin has been an asset because I've been asked to play certain roles as a result. I don't apologise for playing them anymore than Robert de Niro is sorry for playing American-Italians.

I'm a grandfather now, and when I watch children's shows with my two-year-old grandson, Arlo, I'm delighted because it's completely non-traditional casting. It feels like a utopia. How the world should be.

You can watch TV and see experts of all different colours and hues. But the minute you get past nine o'clock and you're in primetime drama land, it's like entering another world, one that doesn't reflect the diversity of the society that we have in Britain in 2016.

When I was 13, I decided I was British and was going to stay that way.

I decided to go and find India on my own. So, I hired a cab for a drive round old Delhi. I was knocked off center by the sheer energy that goes into daily survival.

I questioned the blind faith demanded by my religion, which was Islam.

Stick a camera up in an Indian village, and thousands of people come to watch.

I was lucky enough to be launched into the marketplace with the blessing of a series like 'Jewel.'

When we did 'The Jewel In The Crown,' we filmed in India first so the actors had an idea of what the heat was like, what it did to you - it slows you down; it's weighty: the air that you breathe is full of humidity. You are aware of the fact that you're not in a studio in Manchester.

I jumped at the chance of doing 'Holby.' It's a great show.

There are certain things that I know I don't want to do anymore. Playing out-and-out terrorists who terrorise people and don't actually move the conversation on are not worth doing. So that's probably another reason I don't go back to America, because a lot of it is like that. It's boring, dull, very lazy writing.

There was so much racism when I was a kid, but it was also ignorant.

I have no idea whether I'm any good or not. Still waiting, like most actors, for somebody to find out one day that I can't do it.

I have therapy. Every day. I read a bit of Freud; I try to be a better person. Every day.

Acting's a job. I act to fill the fridge.

When we were discussing 'Holby City, 'I told the producers that I wanted the Art Malik character to be honourable, and my other requirement was that he be a Muslim, because we need Muslims on TV.

I'm not a practising Muslim.

Having portrayed English-speaking Indian characters in British and American projects, I have always wanted to use my mother tongue in an Indian film.

When will we get a female director-general of the BBC? Where is the colour when you go further up the food chain? It disappears.