“A huge thank you to all the Empire readers and all the fans for your whole decade of support; we certainly wouldn’t be standing here without you. You must excuse the lack of David Yates; I know he was very keen to be here but unfortunately he’s putting the finishing touches on our epic finale, hence the reason I’m here. Thank you very much again, and I hope you all have a great evening. Cheers!”

“Well this is very special, made all the more so receiving it from the hands of Mr Firth. We have just worked together, and I have to say not only is he a tremendous actor to work with, but an absolutely wonderful, blinding, darling bloke. Do you have one of these, Colin? Well, it’s the only one he doesn’t have, I think. But I’m sure that there’s one with your name on it. I look at that montage, and I think about all the directors that have cast me in these iconic roles over 30 years. Alex Cox for Sid and Nancy, who got the ball rolling. There’s Coppola, Stone, Chris Nolan, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Leigh, the adorable, wonderful late Alan Clarke, the Scott brothers, Tony, Ridley, and more recently Colin and I have just had the good fortune to work with the wonderful Tomas Alfredsen. It’s a luminous list, and I acknowledge them and I thank them, because they have cast me. They’ve kept me in work and they’ve hired me and they’ve allowed me to have a long career, certainly one long enough to receive one of these.

I can’t tell you how nice it feels to have your work appreciated and honoured. I want to thank Jameson Empire and the readers and the fans, and particularly Ian Nathan for your generosity and your hospitality. For the last couple of days you’ve really treated me like a prince. I can’t thank you enough. I am chuffed, and I am very, very proud of this. And I thank Colin for your wonderful words. And also, Noomi, thank you: the Swedes always had great taste!”