I like being outside and working with the elements. The elemental aspects of it. The physicality of it.

There are responsibilities which are parental responsibilities and those are the types of things we prepare the next generation for, but no one tells you how to answer the kids' questions in the backseat of the car when they want to know what the world is for or where they came from or why any of this is happening.

I tend to head for what's amusing because a lot of things aren't happy. But usually you can find a funny side to practically anything.

The thing is, often press people ask questions that are so personal that even your nearest and dearest wouldn't ask them.

It's true I don't tolerate fools but then they don't tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that's why I'm quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.

People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all.

I'd done "Gosford Park," a film that Julian Fellowes had written that Robert Altman directed.