A few things make a person stylish: honesty, imagination with a sprinkling of humour. I still keep an eye on trends, but I don't follow them any more.

I have recurring dreams about losing my temper, which become quite violent. I dread to think what that says about me.

We take things at face value, don't we? You form an opinion about something immediately, but you ought to step back a bit. Take in the vista first.

I am an actor. I love acting, and I absolutely love what I do, but I don't want it to be every waking hour.

I actually used to compete at show-jumping when I was a young'un.

I think you can tell a lot by someone's footwear - cowboy boots would put me off, as would a man in Ugg boots or Crocs.

The films, the music, the telly that I like is always a little bit more on the margins.

In my 20s, I was going round seeing agents who were patronising because I was fat and a girl, which was a double whammy. I knew what it was to feel out-of-the-loop.

I'd rather go down with an almighty bang than play it safe.

I'm a big techphobe. Someone else helps me run my Twitter; I wouldn't be able to trust myself.

For me, politics is about passion. It doesn't matter what you know; it's your actions that count. I meet people who say they're socialists, and that's not what they carry out in their everyday life.

I watch 'Take Me Out' mainly for Paddy McGuinness. When we were younger, we worked together as lifeguards at the Bolton Leisure Centre.

When we were doing 'Criminal Justice,' they were filming 'Clash of the Titans' nearby and we kept nicking off to their catering tent and going, 'Look what they've got!'

I get angry about the way women are forced and bullied into what the male ideal is.

I get easily distracted and become a bit of a giddy giggler. I'm not good at taking myself seriously, and laughing at myself helps ease the pressure.

Sometimes it feels like the feminist movement never happened.

We still have an underclass in this country who are constantly ignored and vilified.

After my mum and dad got divorced, I was entitled to free school dinners, but my mum said, 'Under no circumstances,' because she was proud.

I left the North when I was 21 to go to drama school in London, and I stayed there 12 years.

I was a tomboy. In my clubbing days, my friend Lucy Davies-Hunt - half-Iranian, looked like Yasmin Le Bon - could wear catsuits, while I was the one in the sweatshirt, jeans, and Fila boots.

If I feel like if there's a few too many people on that path with me, then I want to jump off and find another one.

We shouldn't still be asking, 'Have you got children? Why've you not got children? Ooh, you must have children!' Bog off, d'you know what I mean?

I think, as a woman, you've got to make so many sacrifices.

I went to the Old Bailey, and I met a judge, and I was petrified, but they were like, 'Oh, you're an actor, well, great.' It was a bit like we're cut from the same cloth a little bit.

I do, in a strange way, care deeply what people think.

My favourite outfit is a giant bunny suit. I wore it in a music video for 'Are You One?' by the Chanteuse & the Crippled Claw and got to keep it.

If I dress up, I try to wear something that's still a bit me, but then I regret it when I see that everyone else has dressed up more and looks amazing.

I'm quite cautious in most areas of my life, but I'm always happy to gamble when it comes to acting. I'm not frightened of falling on my face.

Music is a huge inspiration to my style. I first got into it when I was 10: the new wave mod scene.

I'm always an advocate of 'acting is reacting,' which can be difficult.

I get very irate with actors when they talk about how distressing it all is. I mean, it's only acting. Please.

I remember when New Labour got in. I was at Salford Tech studying drama, and everyone was jumping up and down, and I was so upset, I went to a phone box and called my granddad.

As I've got older, I've got slightly more fussy. You've got less time; you need to use it wisely.

Pay in the acting world hasn't kept up with inflation.

The first posh meal out I had was on my 10th birthday.

It's great having time to just sit back and work through things in my mind. It helps put life into perspective.

I've always fancied being a bit of warrior, on a horse swinging a sword around, sorting out the men... Oh yes, that sounds lovely.

You want to go to your deathbed saying, 'I didn't sell out.' But it's a tough business to keep to what you believe in and get through and do well.

Nobody's impressed back home. All my friends were going, 'Oh right, so you're doing a play up in Leeds? Another depressing one is it? Do you mind if we don't bother coming?' I love that.

I think with 'Silk' there's something there for everyone: it's a legal drama, but it's human as well - you get to dip into the lives of the barristers and clerks.

You don't want to bash viewers over the head with a blunt message or lecture them - they'd soon get bored with that.

When I graduated, I was my biggest ever: 15 stone, with a boyfriend - my first - of just 11 stone. I was 23 years old. It wasn't just affecting my career: it was a health issue as well.

At drama school, I was told, 'Lay off the chips, or you'll never play Juliet.' Sometimes, in the stock room of the set of 'Dinnerladies,' I'd put away three or four Mars bars while waiting for a scene. Then, at 24, I lost five stone.

I've always had pop-star crushes. I had a huge crush on Ian Brown.

I don't have massive ambitions to be anywhere other than in this country doing good work.

I didn't have my first serious boyfriend until I was 23. Then after that, I went out with a guy I'd been best friends with all through drama school.

Male? Female? It's not always relevant to some people. They are who they are - they might not fit into a specific box.

I went to Salford Tech. They did a two-year performing arts course. I went there singing and dancing - I had a terrible time. I turned up in green dungarees and German power boots. I was into prog rock at the time - Gong and Hawkwind - and I was clumping around.

I joined the Communist Party when I was 18. When I was 10, there was the miners' strike, and the Cold War was going on; it was quite a potent time to get involved in politics. I got involved through my grandfather, who was a member.

The 'Bolton News' is the best place for online comments. They say I'm an absolute idiot and a communist anarchist. I was never an anarchist; I was a communist!