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

When not eating, I like shopping; although I'm afraid I've become a bit of a cliche.

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

My theory is that one needs to be loved completely, unconditionally, and unfettered by parental disapproval, if one is to get happily through life which, after all, presents its own hurdles.

If, however, you have richer pursuits in mind and know that no woman should be judged by how she looks - that everything she brings to the party is more important than the size of her arse - then refuse to be sucked into the never ending whirligig of self-doubting, self-hating madness that is stop-start dieting and crazy new exercise regimes.

I spent my entire childhood living abroad because of my father's occupation, so we were on long-haul flights all the time.

When popularity is your only goal, doing well in class is going to feature very low, if at all, on your priority list.