I love discovering tiny streets.

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

Shakespeare and his work will always be relevant. He wrote those pieces hundreds of years ago and we haven't really changed as humans, have we? We have to deal with love, honour and adultery now - people were the same then, too - that's what's so wonderful and powerful.

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

For years, I was often afraid to speak up when I didn't fully understand a script. I'd tie myself in knots.

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.

'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.