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

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.

With age comes a greater wisdom, an ease and comfort with oneself.

I've never felt the need to be defined by a man.

I'd like to break some new ground, maybe in TV presenting, rather than just be an actress.

I really enjoyed staying at an encampment at the top of a hill in the Samburu Reserve in Kenya. You reach it on a small plane; there is no electricity, no city noises and you sleep and shower under the Milky Way, with moths fluttering around a kerosene lamp, knowing that there are elephants and lions roaming free in the valley.

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