Time & Perspective Quote by Derek Jacobi

A working actor’s deadpan honesty can cut cleaner than any grand artistic manifesto. Derek Jacobi’s line sounds like praise, but it’s praise with a sideways glance: “getting better and better” isn’t credited to inspiration, risk, or some mystical deepening of craft. It’s credited to money. “Production values” becomes the real protagonist, the quiet admission that in modern screen and stage work, polish often reads as progress.

Jacobi’s intent feels practical, even generous. He’s recognizing the tangible improvements that come with a project earning trust: bigger budgets, better crews, more time, fewer compromises. Yet the subtext is a mild indictment of how audiences (and sometimes critics) are trained to equate expense with excellence. The phrase “each time we did it” hints at serial production - the repeating machinery of franchises, returning runs, sequels, prestige television - where continuity can lull everyone into thinking the art is evolving when the infrastructure is simply upgrading.

There’s also a veteran’s protective modesty here. Jacobi, with his classical pedigree, sidesteps self-mythology. He doesn’t frame success as personal triumph; he frames it as an ecosystem getting resourced. That’s an actor’s-eye view of culture: performance is collaborative, and the conditions matter. The line works because it punctures the romantic story we like to tell about creativity. Sometimes the improvement isn’t a breakthrough. Sometimes it’s better lighting, a more confident camera, a costume department that finally gets to exhale.