I'll tell you how it happened. The phone rang. Paul, my agent, goes, 'Would you like to play Meryl Streep's?' I said, 'Yeeees! I'll do it, whatever it is.' He said, 'It's Mamma Mia!.' I said, 'Oh no, which character? The fat friend?

I keep seeing myself in my daughter, and I see my mother in me and in her. Bloody hell.

Some of the most interesting questions needing to be asked today can best be asked on television, or on stage, and they can be wonderful, great dramas, but they won't necessarily be blockbusters.

I don't like being out of the crowd. It's lonely within a group.

I felt my mother about the place. I don't think she haunts me, but I wouldn't put it past her.

You can't help but feel a little bit like a mother to the younger cast members.

There were all us baby boomers who had a grammar school education, started to learn, then went on the pill, the whole thing, and so there are today a lot more women writers, editors, producers, and so a lot more women's stories. God, the BBC's practically run by women.