"Let me try and think of a comedy. At university, I wrote about Annie Hall. I know Woody Allen is currently a contentious issue, but that film as a comedy, if we can separate the art from the person for whatever reason, is such a clever, poetic film, but it’s written in the same way that a poem is… When you read a piece of prose, it’s very formal and everything follows one after the other. It’s very conventional. Poetry is different because it draws attention to itself as writing, and it rhymes and does different things, and it uses rhythm. Annie Hall in the same way does that cinematically. It’s kind of like a cinematic poem, and it’s just really, really smartly made. It’s one of the few comedies that ever got nominated or actually won any Oscars. Comedy, I think, is one of the most underrated art forms that there is, particularly in terms of material rewards. There is no Oscar for best comedy. There is no Oscar for best comic performance. I think that’s a shame, and I think if there was, then Jim Carrey would be laden down with scones. It’s not something everybody can do. You might dismiss Ace Ventura: Pet Detective as a ridiculous, goofy, throwaway movie, but it is a virtuoso performance from Jim Carrey, as often is with his work. You see a lot of so-called straight actors, serious actors, trying to do comedy, and they cannot do it. I think comedy is something which is underestimated because it is literally not serious. It’s like people think that seriousness equals serious, if you know what I mean. But Annie Hall, I think, it’s such a well-crafted film. It says a lot. Diane Keaton is just unbelievable in that movie. I got to meet her at CinemaCon. She was there promoting Book Club, and I said to the people I was with at CinemaCon, I said, “I have to meet Diane Keaton. Please, can you introduce me to her? I just need to tell her how much I love her. I won’t bother her too much.” I found a moment and I went over and I just told her I had written a thesis about her at university. She said, “Oh, I’d love to read that.” And I said, “No, you wouldn’t. It’s boring and dense.” But she was delightful. For her performance alone, that film, as controversial as it might be, would definitely be on my list."

"Amy Winehouse – her music’s amazing, and she was amazing. Such a great loss to the British music industry, and to the world, really. She’s so missed ­– what a gift her music was to us. Often I’ll listen to music ‘cause musically it’s something I love, but although she ticks every box for me, I just loved what Amy was saying lyrically and how she found such a free way to be herself through music. She really took that spirit of jazz and brought it forward to now. I love Back To Black, that was a phenomenal album, but her first album, Frank, had such an edge to it, and such a rawness, that I just fell in love with it. ""I remember when I was first coming to London to do showcases – I was about 16 – the people that managed me at that point were like, ‘you need to hear this girl! She’s signed to Polydor, she’s amazing, she sits and plays guitar and she’s got these really cool songs!’ They were just raving about this girl called Amy. It was so cool that we were in this similar world. ""I remember when I went to Polydor to see if they wanted to sign me, they gave me a couple of her CDs for free. I was so excited to be in London in the first place, and then to be at a record label, then to get a free CD! I was completely gassed, and the fact it was Amy Winehouse was so cool. ""Frank is such a beautiful album and it reminds me of that time. It reminds me of a real freedom, and of feeling so inspired by what she was saying and how she was saying. There seemed to be no rules – every track was a different genre. The one thing sustaining it – the backbone of the whole album – was her and her voice and her lyrical style. That, to me, is the definition of a true artist. No matter what you put out, your style and artistry belongs to you and you’re the one that carries it through. ""With this song, 'Take The Box', it’s so visual. I don’t even think there was a video for the song, but I feel like I’ve seen it! I feel I can see the whole scenario playing: breaking up with someone, and speaking about relationships in such an open, honest way. I think that’s so important for women. You want to sugar-coat things, you want a perfect reality, and sometimes that stops people telling the truth and getting out of relationships they shouldn’t be in. Amy always gave this very frank account of what it was. ""I loved the melody and the topline of this song. I’ve really been trying to take a step back and look at the process of songwriting instead of just delving straight into it. When you get that perfect trilogy of the topline melody, the chords your using, and the lyric making sense at the same time… she did that perfectly with this song: “Your neighbours were screaming / I don't have a key for downstairs”. It’s such a memorable melody, I think that’s the first thing that pulled me in."