Roger Michell describes his potent new film as "a thriller about love". Adapted from Ian McEwan"s novel, Enduring Love, stars Daniel Craig as Joe, a peevish and splendidly irritating social anthropologist, and Rhys Ifans as the scruffy, puppy-like God bothered who, after an accident with a hot-air balloon, becomes obsessed with him. "As soon as Rhys" character says, "Let"s sit down and pray"," chuckles the director, "you know there"s bad news ahead. In the book he is a more happy-clappy evangelist, but we toned it down." Although clearly drawn to such eccentric characters, Michell himself is thoroughly down-to-earth. "I"m one of those boring people who knew what I wanted to do from an early age," he explains. "I started acting as a child but was completely hopeless so started directing little plays in school." He went on to direct around 15 plays while reading English at Cambridge, directed his first professional play in a pub in Brighton, and then assisted both John Osborne and Samuel Beekett at the Royal Court Theatre. By 1985 he was the resident director of the Royal Shakespeare Company but moved to TV in the early 1990s, when he took charge of Hanif Kureishi"s landmark series The Buddha of Suburbia. Michell"s television career continued to flourish with a gloriously restrained dramatisation of Jane Austen"s Persuasion and an adaptation of his Royal Court success, My Night With Reg. That led to his big break. "The script for Notting Hill just plopped through my letterbox one morning; My Night With Reg had apparently prompted them to offer me the job." Notting Hill alerted Hollywood to Michell"s ability to get the best out of a cast. "I love actors and spend a lot of time with them working and hanging out, and I do proper rehearsals because I have a theatre background." Michell"s next project, Changing Lanes, produced Ben Affleck"s best performance and played big at the American box of flee. With Hollywood at his feet, Michell surprised many people by returning to London to make The Mother, an explicit twist on May-December ual relations written by his old friend Kureishi, and starring Craig. Why did he do it "I just couldn"t see a cigar-chomping studio executive saying, "Yes, I want to do a film about an old woman being tupped by a very young man!" So I came here to do it. But, apart from that, I"m English. I want to live in London with my kids and tell European stories. I feel odd about America at the moment because of what they"re doing around the world and would much prefer to make the films I want to make here." Wherever he goes, though, his most famous film will continue to haunt him. "By the director of Notting Hill", screams the poster for Enduring Love. How does that feel "I can"t be responsible for the posters, but I"m sure a lot of the audience will be a bit taken aback," reflects Michell. "They"ll be asking: "Where are the jokes Where"s Hugh Grant" I do hope they"re not too disappointed." Michell returned to London instead of staying in Hollywood NOT because