a big, fat leading role and there was this incredible precedence, precedent, rather, and in michael gambon'sperformance and yet i did it and it kind of -- it helped a great deal. >> rose: first of all you got rave reviews, including him. what did he say to you? >> michael was very, very complimentary and wrote me a note. >> rose: yes, exactly. >> and it was just great, he was do you remember or not. >> i don't remember precisely and it was also probably very filthy. >> rose: i didn't read the filthy part but just extraordinary, he basically just said nobody could have done this better than you did. >> that means an enormous amount to me. i just want -- i mean, obviously, just to say that -- it can't be overstated the importance of his approval, and there are others, and he is one of them. >> rose: and so, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to watch the two of them together, they are together in page 8. >> absolutely correct. >> rose: and you see them in the same scene. >> yes. >> rose: time after time. >> yes .. >> he plays my boss at m i've 5, the intelligence service the england, and there