I have long been a supporter of The Princes Trust, and so when American Express asked me to launch Amex Be Inspired and help young people build their confidence and fulfil their potential, I was delighted to get involved.

The 24 Hour Plays is a quite brilliant, exhilarating event for everyone concerned.

I cotton to the idea that people are much closer to being flawed; they have problems and dont always make the right choices.

There's something really incredible about watching what someone else does with a role that we know: the Hamlets or the Henry Vs or the Othellos or the Cleopatras that we've seen on stage.

I dont categorize characters into one syllable. These are fully-rounded characters that I dont judge; I just play them.

The legal profession, politics and acting are very closely tied: the whole point is to have an idea and get it across to a listener, whether it is one person or five thousand in a hall.

I can imagine there is going to come a time when someone will do 13 hours of a story without breaks.