If I pop off and do something drastic, everyone's going to realise because they know I'm 50. Anyway, middle-aged women are sensational.

My best friend is my husband.

I adore acting; it's in my blood - quite literally - but I can honestly say the most creative thing in the world for me is being a mother.

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

One of my earliest memories is of being about three and a half, climbing through the legs of a man who I didn't know was the famous actor, Patrick Magee.

I get so nervous before I go on stage that I can never eat very much, so I'm always completely starving afterwards and dying for a bowl of pasta.

It's one of the oldest theatrical adages: never work with children or animals.