My parents' generation's benchmark was simple: Fat Equals Bad.

I'm the co-chair of the PTA at my kids' school, Ashmount Primary, in north Islington, London.

I met Tom Baker doing a voice-over when David [Arabella's friend, David Tennant] wasn't at all well known. We were doing this voice-over together and I said to Tom, 'Oh, my friend's a really, really big Doctor Who fan,' and he replied, 'Wait!' He got his cheque book out and asked, 'What his name?' I said 'David Tennant'. He wrote, 'To David Tennant, seventeen pounds forty five', signed it and I asked him what it meant. He said, 'He'll know'

As I was growing up, it was made clear that the fat me wasn't welcome, that a thin person was expected and awaited, and impatiently so.

Despotism isn't nearly as bad as it's cracked up to be.

Why has everything got to be about feelings these days? In the old days, no one knew what anyone was feeling and, what's more, they weren't expected to.

The crushing, pitiful, and frequently just plain risible pathos of an unsuccessful actor/performer's life is well charted.