In March 2022, Neill was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma - a type of blood cancer, something he said made him "take stock of things".

Aged 75 and unable to work, he turned to writing. He told the BBC it gave him a reason to get through the day.

A year later, what he anticipated as a collection of stories became an autobiography titled Did I Ever Tell you This? It explored his career and his diagnosis - but he stressed that it wasn't a "cancer book".

"The last thing I want is for people to obsess about the cancer thing," the actor said, "because I'm not really interested in cancer, I'm not really interested in anything other than living."

Among other things, the memoir revealed that Neill once auditioned to be James Bond (the role later went to Timothy Dalton), but he claimed he did not really want the part.

His agent arranged for him to visit Pinewood Studios for the audition and insisted that he went. "I found myself out there handling a Luger or something," he told BBC News when the book was published, "and in another simulated bed scene, feeling entirely foolish."

He explained: "I really didn't want to be the Bond that everyone didn't like. If you're a Bond you're a celebrity forever and I'm not and never have been and never wanted to be a celebrity.

"I'm not dogged by paparazzi. I can get a coffee in the morning and no-one bothers me and I think that's completely priceless. So, my life is my own."