After eight years, award-winning medical drama House finally drew to a close in May - but if you're still not over the loss of Hugh Laurie's irascible medic, then worry not. The show's final 22-episode season hits DVD and Blu-ray this Monday (October 22).
In our interview below, series star Laurie talks about his time on the show, how House "walked through a minefield" to become a global hit and why we probably won't be seeing him back on our TV screens any time soon...
House starts off this season in jail. How did you enjoy being a 'con' and did you have any experiences to draw on?
"Besides going to an English public school? No, I had no experience at all. In fact, nobody on the crew had - we are just basing our experience on movies we've seen, which is terrible. Mercifully I had no prison experience.
"It was, however, a real prison. It brought its own concrete feel to it and nobody could be in that building and not be affected by it. It's now a redundant, disused juvenile prison, because there are no juveniles any more - they treat juvenile offenders as adults now - so they closed it down, but I think it was designed to hold 4,000 and by the time it closed, it held 24,000."
Does House become a better man this season?
"I think he is a good man. Ultimately, I think he is a good man. I think he is an annoying man, a mischievous man, and occasionally a very self-destructive man, but I think ultimately he is on the side of the angels. I think he is impatient with certain things that we all find important - he doesn't. And that makes him tiresome at times. But I think he is on the side of the angels.
"I think he has taste and I think he obviously has a gift, a gift of healing. But I already think of him as a good man - a misunderstood man, a troubled man, but a good man.
"Of course I wish for him happiness, I think happiness will probably make him a nicer man, a superficially nicer man, but I don't know that he is designed that way. I think it is just not in his nature. I think happiness is not something he seeks, actually. I don't think he thinks it's important."
Was he happy in season seven when he was with Cuddy?
"Yes, but it came and went. But as a long term... as an actual goal of life... he had moments when he decided or tried to decide that this *was* what he wanted, that he wanted this more than he wanted to be a doctor, that he wanted this more than he wanted to do the right thing. But I think he was trying to convince himself of something that he couldn't really believe."
That he couldn't change...
"That maybe he couldn't change, yes. And that he would always be drawn back to the darkest side of his nature, not darker exactly but he would always be troubled by his own sort of restless spirit and he would always be seeking out problems and challenges, and he'd be seeking out the faults in the earth's crust."
Eight years is a long time - in what way has the show changed you? What influence has it had on your life? Can you envision a life after House?
"Oh, I hope so! I hope I'm not going to simply drop dead as soon as I'm unplugged. Yes, I suppose it has given me... I've had the opportunity to simply be in front of a camera for a very long period of time. We have done 170 shows, that's about 50-60 feature films' worth. That's a huge amount of experience and that sort of experience gives you confidence, in a way.
"I think I probably have a confidence now that I might not have had, or I'm slightly more confident than when I started. And I hope that I will be able to use that in other fields whether it's for television shows or whatever it might be. I hope I'd be able to move forward and do creative, interesting things with it."
What has been your favourite episode over the last eight years?
"Oh wow. I couldn't possibly say. They are all... that's a very extravagant form of Sophie's Choice. I couldn't pick. I like them all. I even like us when we are on a bad day. I do. I do like them all, there is always something.
"I tend to think that we do better shows when the patient is someone that the audience engages with - I think that's just a natural thing when the audience gets involved in the patient's life. So I like stories that have good patient stories, I do like them. We have done 170, I think, now. I couldn't begin to pick one out."
Would you be interested in starring in another TV show?
"I think probably not. I think I've been rather spoiled here. I can't imagine there being another one quite like this. As you probably know, the financing of all television shows is dictated by finding an audience between 18 and 49. I've now passed out of the 49, so I'm probably no longer a desirable commodity for television producers. And I'm at peace with that, that's fine with me.
"I think I would probably be as interested by either writing or producing or directing or some other aspect of it. I find the whole field fascinating but I think I'm extremely lucky to have had the one shot that I've had at it and I wouldn't go looking for lightning to strike twice."
Can you take us to the very beginning of House…
"No, because I have no memories, but I'll do my best."
Can you tell us if you always expected this success for the show?
"No, I had no expectation. Nobody does because just statistically every show is very improbable. Most shows don't survive."
Why do you think this has survived?
"I knew it would be good and we were lucky: we obviously walked through a minefield and we didn't tread on any mines for the first year. A lot of shows do, they tread on mines. They either come up against... they get one thing wrong, they get a piece of casting wrong or the show doesn't look quite right or it's too like another show.
"There can be a million reasons why a show just falls casualty in the first year or the second year, and we were able to, at the end of the first year, look back and think, 'We actually made it. We walked through the minefield and we didn't tread on anything.' And a lot of it is luck.
"You have to get so many things right. In fact you have to get everything right and then be lucky as well, and that's a pretty rare combination and I never thought that would happen."
The eighth and final season of House is released on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday, October 22.
