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

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.

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.

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

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.