Humphrey Barclay

"It seems we make sitcoms work by luck rather than design. [The American method] They fund a sitcom expensively right up front because they know if they get it right it'll make everybody's fortune."

"[On pitching ideas to programme commissioners] When I am turned down, my first thought may be that the person concerned is an idiot. But perhaps he isn't. Perhaps what I am offering has simply got to be better."

"I feel there is terrible prejudice [...] I think it's to do with laziness and preconceptions principally laziness and fear on the part of the establishment. I have a reasonably wide knowledge of the black talent available on paper and on stage and am constantly amazed by it. I have a feeling that people in the seats of power in television entertainment don't know about it because they haven't bothered to explore it."

"Humphrey can't be left to do it on his own. It's not enough for the industry to say: "Of course, we're doing out bit for racial equality — we've got Humphrey Barclay, haven't we?""