If you drop a line in the theatre, you can usually find a way round it. But you can't do that as easily on television - you're in the hands of too many people.

I love going to other people's weddings, but I have never desired a big white wedding for myself, and it has never been put on me as a pressure, an expectation.

It sounds so boring - and my brothers tease, 'Oh poor you, pulling pretend pints all day' - but it's very, very long hours, and you're knackered when you get home.

I couldn't knock on people's door; if they answered the door and said, 'I don't want to speak to you,' I'd be like, 'Oh, OK then - I wouldn't either, to be honest.'

I initially went into 'Coronation Street' for three months. If they had said back then, 'Do you want to do it for six years?' I probably would have said, 'I don't think so.'

I can't imagine soaps will ever stop, because people will always watch as long as they have great stories and characters. But the soaps will have to keep evolving, won't they?

Whenever there was a show like 'Calamity Jane,' me and my siblings would be plonked on stage in a costume because it was easier to have us in it rather than sort out babysitters.

I don't think, as a journalist, I'd ever get a story written. I'd probably spend five years researching it, and by the time I'd finish it, no one would be interested in it anymore.

When I left 'Coronation Street,' I wondered if I could ever be lucky enough to work with such a unanimously wonderful company of good people - and I've just come to that good bunch again.

I've had a fantastic time at 'Coronation Street,' and I'm chuffed at the reaction to Becky. It's been this lovely redemption story, and I think that's what the viewers have enjoyed about it.

I've got a really good network that includes friends who all had babies within eight weeks of each other, plus my sister, a lovely part-time nanny and a nursery where Orla goes for half days.

The police who did our training said 'Happy Valley' is one of the only police programmes they can watch and not burst out laughing, saying, 'As if you'd do that.' They think it's really authentic.

I remember, when I was a teenager, 'Pride And Prejudice' came out. We hadn't had a period drama for ages, and were all glued to it, and for the next three years, Jane Austen series were being made.

I used to work at a pub called The Miner's Rest, and the landlord, Dennis, taught me how to pour a proper pint - it's the type of place where the regulars would send their drinks back if they weren't right.

I remember trying to explain the class system to a Canadian friend when we started at RADA. The funniest thing was when I told her what bonfire night is all about. It's quite dark when you start breaking it down.

The next series of 'Mr Selfridge' has moved on five years. It's 1914 now, and the war is brewing. Halfway through the series, some of the Selfridges staff have to go off to fight, so they get women in to do the men's jobs.

I'm a good old Yorkshire girl in that I don't like to talk about things that are on tick. As my nana always said, 'Until you've bought it, it's not yours,' so until it's signed on the dotted line, I don't like to talk about it.

So many people say you have to remember to grab hold of your bride or groom and spend time with them. I think if we had done a traditional wedding, we would have been doing it for everyone else, but this was about the two of us.

My parents are really honest when they watch something. My nan is brutally honest. She'll tell me, 'Oh, you looked awful in that scene,' and I'm like, 'Well, I was giving birth at the time, so it probably worked with the character, Nan.'

It's hard when something's bigged up because you want people to watch it, so you have to promote it. It'd be great if it was the old-fashioned days when there was no press, and you just switched on and thought, 'Oh, God, what's going on?'

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