I tried Botox, but I don't want to be hooked on that stuff.

Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, the higher your profile, the more castable you are in TV dramas.

I have done so many love scenes in the past that I have learned how to pull off a sexy smoulder on the dance floor.

I enjoy art, architecture, museums, churches and temples; anything that gives me insight into the history and soul of the place I'm in. I can also be a beach bum - I like to laze in the shade of a palm tree with a good book or float in a warm sea at sundown.

At the beginning of my acting career, I worked for two seasons at the RSC and spent a lot of time in the Cotswolds exploring Shakespeare's countryside. It's my kind of English landscape, with its tiny villages and one-room thatched pubs.

It's a bit of a headache being a perfectionist. You're never satisfied.

I grew up in the Fifties, and the majority of people in my class had fathers living at home. I was very aware that I was in the minority. I had a foreign name, and my daddy didn't come and pick me up from school. I felt like an outsider, which probably helped me as an actress.