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.

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

I have sleepless nights before press days.

I'd been gearing up to working in theatre since coming out of drama school, but it was an exciting time for TV drama - it was the birth of Channel 4, and Brookside was very cutting-edge at the time.

It always interests me how obsessed people are about age.

I couldn't imagine a home without animals.

I like to think I'm a listener, and I'm fascinated by observing people - I suppose you just lock that in.