Matt Smith

Every two weeks on 'Doctor Who,' the set is completely different, the world is different and there are new actors coming in. So, it's constantly surprising, and it's a pressure that you relish, actually.

Actors, movie stars, rock stars, I can meet them with no worries - but with footballers I go weak at the knees. All of them.

So many more people recognise you and want to take up a moment of your time for a photo or a hello. You try to deal with it with grace and a degree of humour, because what's the alternative?

If I was making a tea advert, I would want to communicate about tea is that it can console you, it can start your day, there is the warmth and the ritual, and you can share it; you make someone a cup of tea and you offer it to them.

I thought 'Skyfall' was a sumptuous film.

I think there's an interesting contradiction of having a young face and an old soul. There's something funny about it, and it also allows you to reinvent being old.

I quite like the idea of family. That's probably the greatest achievement in the world. I've got a lot to achieve workwise - I'd love to direct - but family would be good.

I am a fan of a bright sock. They're bold.

I am a fancy dress grump, to be honest.

I got injured when I was a kid, and it prevented me from becoming a footballer.

I was always aware of 'Doctor Who,' but I didn't grow up with it.

I think Jennifer Saunders would be great in 'Doctor Who.'

I think that every artistic venture is a risk, and it has to be that way, so you do as much preparation as you can and make that as thorough as you can possibly make it, until you turn up on set. It's about taking risks, and some might work and some might not, but that's what makes it interesting.

Sometimes when you lose your mobile phone, even though it's frustrating, it's sort of rewarding in many ways because, though we do rely on them a lot, we are not reliant on them. The world continues without.

I'm awful at karaoke, but if I did have to sing, I'd go for my favourite Frank Sinatra song 'I've Got You Under My Skin.' The fact I love Frank is my grandfather's doing: he drummed it into me from a very early age that Frank Sinatra is God.

It's hard work, 'Doctor Who,' but let's be frank about it, I'm fortunate to be rewarded in the ways that I am. I don't just mean financially, I mean the nature of the part and everything that comes with it.

Police boxes, tweed blazers and bow ties feel quite English, but I think that is one of his virtues, one of the strengths of 'Doctor Who.'

I always steal a pair of socks on every photo shoot I do. It's my thing.

I think expectations of 'Doctor Who' should always be high, because it's a show that must always progress and get better and better.

I'd like to do a play in New York.

For clothes, I like Dover Street Market and Acne. For vintage, I go to Mint just off Seven Dials. For shoes, it's Church's and Russell & Bromley.

If you want to give it a good go, you've got to make some sacrifices and be as dedicated as you can be. Particularly with 'Doctor Who.' It's two or three hours of line-learning a night.

I would be sitting in my flat watching TV, and 'Doctor Who' would be on with my flatmate there. I would have loved to share the fact that I was the new Doctor, but I couldn't. I was going mad. My dad was rather flabbergasted. When I told him, he laughed. He was excited, elated and very proud.

I constantly watch 'The Simpsons' and an English cartoon called 'The Raccoons' and 'Gummi Bears.' I was obsessed with ninja films, and the 'Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles,' I used to love that as well.

If I could film, we'd film every episode of 'Doctor Who' in New York. I have an affinity with the city. It has some wonderful locations and it is devastatingly vast and huge. Central Park looks amazing on camera.

I asked for a piano in the TARDIS, but it hasn't happened. I'd love to see the Doctor rock up and play, but it'd have to be done in an inventive and silly way.

As we get older - perhaps I'm just speaking for myself - we can get too cynical.

I think that, if the world was a bit more like Comic-Con, we'd all be a little happier.

I just love vampires.

There are great disciplines from being a sportsman that you can transfer into being an artist. The preparation, the sacrifice, the constant desire to improve.

I am terribly clumsy, so there is a plethora of walking into lamp-posts, falling over, dropping things, and ruining sofas.

I used to read Gore Vidal books and think I was cool.

Kids should feel afraid of 'Doctor Who.' All the adults I've talked to remember fondly being afraid when they were kids. That's part of the reason they remember it and love it. And if you're afraid in a controlled way, you sort of appreciate fear in some respect.

Some people don't need to work hard because they are so talented.

There is a history of footballers in my family; my granddad played for Notts County and my dad played at county level.

It seems like there's a real appetite for science fiction in the States.

The storytelling in 'Doctor Who' is quite universal.

Even now, I'm very superstitious, in silly ways. I always put my left boot on first. Or on set, I always tie my bow tie from right to left.

Time travel is such a magic concept.

I'm not handsome enough to be James Bond. Maybe a villain, though.

Any actor worth his salt has a responsibility to reinvent himself from part to part.

Overnight ratings are dead. It's just not the way TV is sold any more.

No, I'm not religious. At all. I'm an atheist.

I am a terrible sleeper.

I've always loved dinosaurs.

As a kid, I knew all of the dinosaurs. It's one of those tragedies that I've forgotten what dinosaurs are cool.

Spiders - the way they move freaks me out. It's so malevolent.

Apparently, as a kid, I used to eat spiders. Maybe there's some Freudian significance behind that.

If I see a spider in the flat, I try to get a cup and a piece of paper and throw it out of the window. I can't kill them because they're good for catching flies.

I used to love ninja movies. That was my thing.