It's always uneven, love; it's unbalanced and it's obviously even worse when it comes to someone wanting to part from someone who isn't willing to. It's often feeling hurt that you've never felt before and you want somebody else to feel that pain and also not wanting to let go, because when you let go you've got to start living your life again and it consumes people.

You've only got a short shelf-life as an actor, and I want to make the most of it while I can.

Hackney gets a bit of a bad rap, but it's the only place I've ever lived that felt like a community. I know my neighbours.

I despise shows that present friendship where you're always there for each other and really strong because I don't know anyone like that. I mean, I've got great friends, but I can go months without seeing them because I think, 'I just can't deal with having to give you anything.

Comedy and drama are less ageist media for women than stuff like light entertainment. But in TV or film, women have to be more pleasing on the eye than men.

I think that there's an idea in 2016 that if a woman doesn't have it all then she's lacking in some way, and I think that 'having it all' is the kid, the relationship and the career, and that seems horribly skewed. I get genuinely excited when I meet women - or men - who don't want to have children. It's refreshing and unusual and means they're not swayed by what society has told them, they're just listening to their own basic instincts. I love meeting people who are fulfilled by other things. I think, 'lucky old you' when I meet someone single.

There are lots of actors, and you need a way to stand out. Writing comedy sketches was a way of doing that.