I was lucky to learn early in life that you need money for food and shelter, but there's no ambition in having money in the bank for the sake of it!

I listen to Radio 4 all the time. I didn't go to university, so that's my further education.

America is such a nation of suppressed emotion, and when you arrive in L.A., you can smell the fear. It's the most alien country I've ever been to.

To be honest, my husband and my children are my best friends.

I spent my teenage years in Paris when my dad was stationed there, and I'd look at women in their forties and think, 'That's the age I want to be.'

I can sleep anywhere! I can come off stage during the interval of a play, lie down for four minutes then wake up feeling better.

I use my awards as doorsteps. Others are in the office or in little cubbyholes in our library – they go between the books, because they actually look like arty pieces