Every time we moved on, I joined a different class in a different school with different girls until, aged 13, my father had taken the decision to pull me out of school altogether. Everything I needed, he reasoned, could be found within the rich language of Shakespeare's plays at which, by then, I was something of an old hand.

Success breeds success, and failure leads to a sort of fallow period.

I think very few people do find a relationship where, every moment of every day, everything they do comes together. That's why, in a nutshell, everyone loved Barbara in 'The Good Life.' She was the perfect partner. It was a formula. She wasn't glamorous. She wasn't clever. But she was a good partner. That's too easy, too perfect.

So many roles for women demand that you make the audience fall in love with you or sympathise with you.

I don't think, until you've actually lost somebody you really love, that you can go through that door that allows you to be grown-up.

The girl-next-door image is a sort of joke; for years, I couldnt get any roles other than as somebody dark.

The gym is where I get my chill-out time. I try to go six days a week, but when I'm working, that goes down to about three.