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.

I'm lucky to have very good genes. My mother was so tiny she was almost bird-like, and my father was tall and lean. Both lived until their early 80s.

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

People ask me how I manage without a man in the same tone they might ask someone how they're doing with just one lung, but it's not like that at all.

I try to live my life as honestly as I can, and the last thing I want is to pretend to be something I'm not. To pretend to myself I am a sex symbol would somehow be dishonest. I'd feel, in my heart, that I were behaving artificially and that's the last thing I want to do.

I grew up in a very political household. My mum used to shout at the television. At Mrs. Thatcher.

I didn't get attached to Botox. It is costly, and you have to remember to keep doing it.