The way I relax is I think, 'I haven't got anything coming up.' I like to know there are months ahead when I've got nothing.

It's getting better generally, daily, especially in TV, for women in acting and age and looks count less. As more women come into the business. Change of any sort takes a long time to happen.

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?

In order to be creative you have to be allowed to fail.

I was feeling very irritable. It was that difficult time of the month when the credit card statement arrives.

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 never had any acting heroes. I never really went to the theatre.