I wasn’t a major acolyte. I think when that came out, it had a major impact. I mean, there were three graphic novel series that were considered for adults that came out after 1985, which were “Sandman,” “Watchmen,” and “The Invisibles,” and they were kind of the urtext for a lot of people and launched a thousand other titles. They all had their charms, and they all had multiple characters. There was philosophy throughout. There were thrills and chills that you would expect from comics, but it was for adults and could often be very emotional.

But I wasn’t a major student of “Sandman.” I’m a friend of Neil’s. I adapted his short story “How To Talk To Girls At Parties” for the screen, and we’re buddies. So I was thrilled when the offer came through to play Hal, which I mostly did because I got to sing songs from [the Broadway musical] “Gypsy,” and I would like to play Mama Rose someday. So it was a good time, and a wonderful cast and group of people. I enjoyed being a mentor, and my character is a mentor to the character of Rose, so I loved working on it.

Stephen Fry is a buddy. Tom Sturgess is brilliant. I’ve met him a couple times. Manages to take a character that, on stage, could look a bit flat and imbue it with this kind of rueful, unspoken backstory. He’s really brilliant in this. Very hard role to play. So just very happy overall to be part of something that I believe has finally been cracked, something that many people have tried to adapt and failed for various reasons. But Allan Heinberg, Neil, Netflix, the combination, I think they finally cracked the safe.