Ninety nine per cent of the time, for anyone who wins or makes money, it makes them happy.

When I was 11 I played the part of Rumpelstiltskin and my teacher told me I would make a great actor.

The household I grew up in... was rather like an Ovaltine advert. There was a huge fire, a kettle on the fire, the oven with the bread being baked every day, and there was the radio; it was very magical to hear all these wonderful programmes.

I had to leave school at 14 because my father got injured in the mines and I had to support my family. I was an undertakers assistant, then a plasterer, before doing my military service in the RAF. All the while, I was doing amateur dramatics and dreaming of getting a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

I went to drama school but it was very hard to get work until I was made assistant stage manager.

Wishing kindness and compassion to all living creatures.

My parents were so proud when I got a scholarship to go to theatre school - it was unheard of that a coal-miners son should go to drama school.