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.

Sadly, the timing's never been right. There have been men who would have married me but I didn't feel the same, and vice versa.

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

I'm a romantic and will only marry for love where there's respect and compatibility. I'd like to be with someone if the right person came along. I really like male company. I like the male mind.

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

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

There's something about 'Strictly Come Dancing.' Everywhere I go, people wish me good luck; cabbies toot their horns. It's lovely. I have a theory: in straitened times, there's nothing like a bit of unapologetic escapism.