Hannah Rothschild: What was your first association with Film4?

Danny Boyle: I got sent a script, Shallow Grave, and had to go in to describe my ideas on making it to David Aukin. He then said you can make it, here’s a million pounds!

Had it always been your ambition to make a movie?

Oh God yes. But from the kind of background I come from, you couldn’t get into the film industry. So I went into the theatre and then into television. In America TV and theatre tends not to be a route to movies. But here virtually all the directors you will talk to have come through TV.

Was Shallow Grave a typical Channel 4 film?

Very much so. The Channel clearly set out to embrace and challenge British taste and this included exciting, sexy, dangerous British movies.

Did you realise that Shallow Grave and Trainspotting were going to be such successes?

No, definitely not. But the scripts did share a sense of humour, morality, or lack of it, with pop music.

I don’t understand the connection between films and pop music?

We hardly produce any decent movies, but we revive and reinvigorate pop music constantly. This is where our culture is triumphant in my opinion, and it explains people’s loyalty is to music and Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. But then a lot of it is accidental, and you set out to make [each movie] even better than the previous one.

Do you think you achieved that? Do you feel each movie you have made is better than the last one?

[laughs]

You led me into asking that!

I am certainly not going to be led into answering it.