Sir Ian McKellen

And he's not any painter who lives, but you feel as if he might be.

Rather grumpy in his old age, lives by himself.

It's all over, he thinks.

And he's a sad man, lonely, and into his life walks this amazing woman who he spars with, and I think eventually, in a way, falls in love with.

A lover walked out on him and it devastated him.

No, I think he's still quite juicy, but the juice is wasted.

It runs away into the gutter.

It's not put into his work.

He hasn't painted anything for a long time.

Is that believable?

Yes, I think so.

I think as you get older, you decide, am I going to go on or am I going to look back all the time?

And he's static and comes back to life, I think, through his meeting with this remarkable young girl.

Well, it's a bit of a thriller, so we can't give too much away.

But yes, she's an agent of the two dreadful children, and she comes to try and rescue these unfinished paintings, the Christophers that are upstairs, so that she can do something with them.

We shouldn't say what.

But the plot gets nicely complicated, and...

And the old boy is trying to work out what she's doing here in this house.

And although he welcomes her, he resents her at the same time.

Directors and writers do often pay you that compliment, and I never quite believe it.