I wish someone had got hold of me and said, 'You know, children are really good fun. You will have a fantastic time, and you will still work.'

There aren't many shows that encompass roles for a seven-year-old to someone in their 50s.

Once you've sat in a room annoying Derek Jacobi while he's trying to do his crossword, you're prepped for working with the greats.

The best thing my mum and dad did was to send me to the local youth theatre. I loved that; I felt I'd found the thing I really wanted to do.

My make-up call as Cassie on 'Unforgotten' is 45 minutes, and on 'The Split', it's considerably longer. They have to do your hair and your make-up. On 'Unforgotten,' I'm in and out, and I don't have to worry about how I sit for the whole day so as not to crease the clothes.

I find the whole ceremony of marriage a bit like going to work. Putting on a lovely dress and make-up, learning lines, someone doing your hair.

When you're a kid, you imagine acting to be singing and fighting and like the movies. Then you become an actor and get the reality, which is often a lot more mundane. But sometimes it's really nice to run around with guns saving the world.

It can be tough to turn things down, but as an actor, being in demand is a nice problem to have.

When I'm not working, as a family we are obsessed with jumping off rocks into the sea and doing dangerous things.

There's a really sweet spot with acting where you've finished a job, and you've got another one coming up in three or four months' time. That's my favourite period of unemployment.

We're all used to seeing a lot of cop shows, some of them brilliant, some of them very generic.

High-end divorce is a closed world. When I tried to research it, I was really surprised about how little there is out there. I think that's because of the nature of the subject matter - privacy is incredibly important to this level of client.

I just want to carry on doing high-quality work.

There are a lot of women - directors, producers, writers - involved in my career. They are all interested in telling good stories, and good stories involve men and women.

When you're working, you're in the present, but you've always got one eye on where your next job might be coming from, and I don't think that will ever go away.

We bought a sofa with the money I made from 'Thunderbirds,' and I've still got it, and we call it Thunderbird 1. That's literally all I got out of the job.

I'd do anything with Tom Courtenay.

As I get older, I get happier.

Breakfast is a battle. I never feel like eating, but I have now found my way to porridge. I have it with full-fat milk and banana.

Roast potatoes - I can't say no. At Christmas, I reach over for the fifth or sixth one, and I think I could keep going until I explode.

I'd be an absolutely appalling detective... Appalling.

We lived in so many flats, and the more people you could get, the cheaper the flat was. Someone was always sleeping in the living room, and you're always slightly hiding them when the landlord came round.

I've got a feisty face.

You can't escape your face.

You just have to look at me to know what I am feeling. So I would be a useless policewoman or spy.

The confidence and charisma it takes to stand up in front of a group of children absolutely terrifies me.

I found myself at Cambridge, loved my course, and met these amazing people who got me heavily involved. I presumed I would have to go to drama school, but I did a play with my uni friends, who were doing lots of pub theatre in London, and through that met my agent. She said 'Don't go to drama school. I'll get you a job' and two weeks later she did.

I can't tell you the excitement to be in a new TV series or a play you've got to read for. That's the best.

Yes, I go a little bit crazy when I'm not working, which is an issue for me. My background is you go to work; that's what you do.

I was always about working. I like working. I don't like being unemployed. I love acting.

My whole family were from the East End, but they moved away when I was a child. They still cannot get their heads around the fact that I ran back to London as soon as I could, when I was 21.

Filming in London is brilliant.

In this industry, people like to look at different faces on their screens - even I do.

Two of my dramas, 'Unforgotten' and 'River,' were airing at the same time, and Dad had read about my 'success' in a newspaper - he thought it was brilliant. I was thinking, 'Does this mean I'm going to be put in a box for a bit now?'

'Unforgotten' was a bit of a no-brainer. I'm a big fan of crime dramas, but often the 'investigation' part goes much too smoothly - and you don't get that with this.

If you could make telly as good as radio, it would be amazing - audio can do things so easily that television can't.

I've only ever been on a long-runner with 'Spooks.'

Cornwall is my favourite place - I wish I could earn a living there.

It's totally different playing a lawyer and a detective.

Most people feel like they're out of step, so just have the conviction to go your own way.

I took a long time after 'Curious' to find something I really wanted to do.

I want to watch telly that reflects the world I see.