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

I love cycling, but if I could find a way of building something above the streets for cyclists, that would be amazing. We need even more space.

'Downton Abbey' has become this huge thing, and I really enjoy the success of it, but I sometimes find myself on the outside looking in, which is sort of a healthy way to look at it so you don't get too caught up in 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.

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 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.

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