Mark Lawson talks to the award-winning actor Timothy Spall about his life and career. Spall reflects on his working-class roots and the joys and anxieties of being a 'professional depicter', as well as his personal fight with leukaemia.

He rose to prominence in classic stage and television drama, but it was his work with director Mike Leigh that established him as one of the country's best-loved character actors in films such as Life is Sweet and Secrets and Lies. His sensitive and humane performances as Britain's last hangman Albert Pierrepoint and Dickens's Fagin speak of his fascination with the human condition and his desire to play all sorts of funny looking people. Show less