I grew up without the rose-tinted look at the profession many of my friends had, but I've been very lucky playing major roles in 'An Ideal Husband', 'Arcadia' and 'The Memory of Water'.

Filming is quite exciting because every day is different, but it can involve long hours standing around in chilly locations. Theatre is a very different challenge because every night you're striving to keep it fresh, even though you might have been performing the same play for months.

Inside my heart, there's a 12-year-old girl who has always wanted to be Ginger Rogers.

The middle-aged woman is the ground bed of the audience that watches television and yet they are absolutely invisible.

I'm an appalling flyer. I get very tense, although I no longer weep uncontrollably for no reason - I just sob if there's turbulence.

Sometimes I'll work through the crossword sections of three separate papers.

The big thing that Moneypenny changed was the amount of charity work that I was able to be involved with.