I get so excited about reading a new script.

My mum taught me always to see the funny side of things.

If Shakespeare was around today I would ask him out to dinner. The only thing I don't like about him is the way he did his hair.

Othello' was my first Shakespearean discovery. I was obsessed with drama at school, and I studied the play for my English GCSE. Desdemona is the part that everyone wants, but Iago's wife Emilia is the one I've always been drawn to.

In the early '20s, with the war over, there was a period of celebration, and you can see it in the fashion.

I really enjoy singing, it's entirely different to acting because I'm just being myself.

I think the success of 'Downton' is partly because there are effectively 18 leading characters, all given equal importance, so it's enormously involving on many levels. But also, it's a new story. It's not like Dickens or Austen, where everyone knows the denouement.