Being in the same scenes as Maggie Smith and Shirley MacLaine is something I will never forget.

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.

When I was a child, I went to stage school three times a week in the evenings - singing, ballet, tap, modern and acting, and I loved it.

I don't get recognized all the time, but it tends to happen more in America, and people are so lovely when they do.

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

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

I come from a very working-class background, so my family would have been downstairs in the past, as opposed to upstairs. People are often quite surprised to hear that, that I'm not actually posh.