I can talk myself so much into my part.

I'm interested in politics, what's going on in the world, how people behave and how your life is often in the hands of other people.

Sixty felt like a big landmark. Not in a dreadful sense, but none of the other birthdays have bothered me. It's got labels on it - OAP, retirement - and I just wanted to take stock. I wanted to be in my greenhouse at home and at least give myself the opportunity of not working again.

That's why I'm an actress - escaping into a world.

I've never done so much bloody crying in my life. I was always moaning about how hard it was when we were shooting, how awful I felt.

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

It wasn't being an alcoholic - it was going wild. It happened when I got famous. It was like having my teens in my early thirties: blotting out your life, not having to think about anything.