Hello everybody, thank you. I’m extremely proud and very happy to be here today to honour Simon. I’ve worked with him now for 5 years and I can testify that – Mike, nobody on this street deserves this star more than Simon does. What you see on-screen is an actor of great intelligence and charm and wit and grace, and great handsomeness. I think probably the one thing I will treasure most about doing this series with Simon is seeing the Chancellor of Germany break down and giggle and blush like a schoolgirl on sight of Simon. That’s what he’s like on-screen, all that charm and wit, off-screen what you don’t see, and what I’ve seen him bring to the set every day for 5 years, is an iron work ethic and the eyes and ears of a real genuine film-maker.

 

The first time I met Simon to talk about The Mentalist, he arrived on a bicycle, and he pulled the script out of his back pocket, all rolled up and sweaty and dog-eared, and every page of the script was covered in notes and black marks and kind of exclamation marks saying NO, crossing out, underlines. Now usually that’s not a good sign, and I was very apprehensive. But Simon analysed that script like an old soldier breaking down a rifle, he made sure all the parts were clean and oiled and working, and then he put it all back together again just the same as it was but better. And he made the character of Patrick Jane his own. There’s a warmth and ease about the character of Patrick Jane, a sort of happy glow about the character that is purely Simon. Off-screen working with him day-to-day, you learn to ignore the glow, but the warmth and ease and the generosity of spirit are very real, and I think that’s why The Mentalist is a success all over the world. It’s also why after 5 years we make the show with pretty much the same cast and crew that we started with - that warmth and ease that people can tell is real. On behalf of that cast and crew that have been together now for 5 years, I just want to say how proud and happy I am, and big congratulations to Simon, you really deserve this, thank you.