00:00Not Taylor Swift, I'm not, you know, Tom Cruise.
00:02And she rubbed her hands together like that.
00:04I've got my Oyster card and I've got a cab if I need it.
00:07This is a nice dark hotel, I'm in the mood now.
00:09That's the way I like it.
00:10What I want to know is, how do you prepare for a thriller like this compared to, you
00:13know, your period drama, your comedies?
00:16I'm a bit of a, I'm a sucker for a murder mystery.
00:18I love murder mysteries.
00:19I met a woman in the street a couple of days ago and she said, what are you doing now, are
00:23you doing now?
00:24I said, well I'm doing, I've got this thing, Lazarus, coming out.
00:26She said, what is it?
00:27I said, it's a murder mystery.
00:28She said, oh great.
00:29What with autumn coming?
00:30And she rubbed her hands together like that, she went, what with autumn coming?
00:33And you think, what's autumn got to do with?
00:35It's like that thing where they say, cozy crime.
00:38You wonder what's cozy about murder, but obviously that's what it's become.
00:42No, I love doing contemporary things, more than period things.
00:46I love doing, I read genre novels, I love, I'm a big fan of Harlan Coburn.
00:51I've read all 16 I think of his, there's a particular double act in his books that I've covered and this was a great script.
01:04They were great scripts and it was a no brainer.
01:06I love Harlan Coburn stuff.
01:08By the way you talked about a lady on the street, I feel like I only ever see you on Instagram and X or Twitter or whatever, you seem to always be meeting people on the street, I love that.
01:17Well, I don't own a car and I love not owning a car and I live in London, why would I use a car, you know, it's like I've got my Oyster card and I've got a cab if I need it and therefore, and my biggest, I don't do much.
01:31What I do do for pleasure is to walk, drink coffee and go to bookshops, I mean, and I like cafes more than probably anything else in human society and I don't, and if I can't do those things then the game's up, which means that the deal is I therefore meet, because I'm visible, I meet a lot of people, but it's, but it's cool, you know, everybody's, you know, there's no, I've never been, you know, there's no heat attached to it, I'm not about to be mobbed at any point, you know what I mean?
02:00It's like, so it's kind of, uh, not quite Taylor Swift level maybe.
02:03Not Taylor Swift, I'm not, you know, Tom Cruise, but it's just like, you know, it's just that old bloke whose name they can nearly remember but they can't pronounce, uh, which is fine, you know, and I, I have very nice meetings with people and everybody, the thing is now everybody's got a camera all of the time, didn't used to be like that.
02:20Now, you know, the only thing that is ever irritating is when you turn around and people are doing it without having asked and it's a slightly primal thing, you think, really, you know, or you've got your mouth full or something, you know.
02:32Well, I want to go on to paranormal activity.
02:34At my wedding, the fire alarm went off, everyone had to be evacuated and the window had been smashed and the caretaker said it was a baby ghost, a child, because there used to be an orphanage.
02:44Do you like that kind of stuff? Because I felt really warm, I don't know why, I liked that.
02:48You liked that at your wedding?
02:50Yeah, I just liked the idea that there's kids running around.
02:52I don't, I'm not against it, I don't dismiss it, I don't have any real feeling toward it, I don't, I haven't had any, as far as I know, I haven't had any paranormal experiences.
03:03Um, I do think there's more to heaven and earth than meets the eye.
03:06I'm perfectly prepared to believe that there's parallel universes in which, you know, all kinds of stuff happens, but I have no information in that area.
03:14But, uh, and in terms of watching things and reading things, uh, I love that kind of stuff, you know, I read a lot of sci-fi, um, which is a term that some people object to, literature of the imagination, it might be the better term.
03:29And I read William Gibson, I read Neil Stevenson, I read a lot of that kind of, I would call high-end, uh, sci-fi.
03:37And, uh, so therefore I'm, I'm drawn to that kind of stuff.
03:40So you love being a mysterious guy for this one?
03:42Um, I enjoyed this job, yeah, it was a great gig, and I liked everything about it.
03:47And Harlan, one of the great pleasures was meeting Harlan Coben, who I've read, you know, most of his books.
03:52And, uh, he turned out to be a really, really charming, lovely man.
03:56Did you turn up with your tote bag with all your books in it to get them signed?
03:59No, I don't, I don't actually collect books, because I, I worked out that I don't, I've recently moved and I would, and I had a place done up, a flat, I've got a flat and I had it all done up.
04:09And I, and I, and people presume, because I read all the time, that people presume that I'm going to have a book-lined room.
04:16I don't want a book-lined room.
04:17So I only keep books that are either signed or have some kind of sentimental value.
04:23What's your best signed one then?
04:25Um, well I haven't got anything signed by anybody really.
04:29I've got, with David Hare I work with a great deal, and he, or usually, when there's a new book, he sends me a book and it's usually signed, and it's signed to me.
04:36There you go.
04:37But I haven't got anything, um, you know, really, I have got a couple of things that have been given to me that are valuable.
04:42Uh, I have a first edition of, uh, Night and Day by Virginia Woolf, which must be, oh, I also have a first edition of one of my favourite books, which is Parade's End by Ford Maddox Ford.
04:57And, uh, I have a first edition of the first part of that.
05:01It's four books in one, and, uh, that's a serious piece of literature.
05:05Wow.
05:06And there's me and my Spice Girls sign LP.
05:08I mean...
05:09I also have, under glass, a player's cigarette packet signed by, uh, all of the Rolling Stones when Brian Jones was alive, which cost quite a lot of money.
05:21And it's in a, in a plastic Perspex thing, so you can see it from both sides.
05:25And, uh, that's a serious piece of memorabilia.
05:29Amazing.
05:30It was great to hear that.
05:31Thank you very much indeed.
05:32And I might see you outside of Costa Coffee, who knows?
05:34Oh, yeah.
05:35Thanks.
05:36Thanks, Bill.
05:37Thanks, Bill.
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