When you made the first Bond film – Dr No – how did you see you career progressing?

I didn’t have anything resembling a great game plan. Everybody claimed they knew that the James Bond films were going to be a successful series – it’s just not true. The same goes for myself.

If you had asked me when I was 28, I definitely wouldn’t have imagined I’d still be acting at 68. I’ve never been one for long term planning. I prefer a more personal approach – impulsively taking or not taking a role, liking or not liking it. Oh, and travelling a lot.

It’s really about doing what I think I can do well in the kind of movies that I would like to see. As for looking to the future, I always wanted to be an old man with a good face, like Hitchcock or Picasso.

I’m incredibly lucky to still be around at 68, doing all the things I want to do and getting extremely well paid for it all.

There’s a parallel with golf – a lot of it’s in the mind and the moment you start to lose enthusiasm or appetite, it effects your judgements and decisions. And then you stop performing well.

Enthusiasm and appetite are more important than anything.