I think you know what you're up against when you take on a piece that you know is going to involve dragging up a lot emotions - you can end up being deeply immersed in gloom.

But I didn't really enjoy my secondary education that much, probably because I am a very physical person and don't enjoy sitting at a desk all day. I just dragged myself through GCSE and A Levels, so it suited me very much to go on to drama school, which was very active.

Running gave me a focus to start looking after myself, to eat properly, and focus on building up my strength.

If I want to run around a field when I'm 70, I would like to have that option.

Being an actor is an extension of telling a story and I loved story telling as a child.

No, I always wanted to be an actress.

I still love coming into work everyday after so many years working as an actress. I've been working more or less continuously and I find I have to really want to do the project to make it work because you have to put such an enormous amount of effort into it.