Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I watch 'Take Me Out' mainly for Paddy McGuinness. When we were younger, we worked together as lifeguards at the Bolton Leisure Centre.
People think I'm clever, which is hilarious. I'm like, 'When did this happen? People used to think I couldn't string a sentence together.'
I love 'Splash!' and 'Take Me Out.' Not that I'd ever do 'Splash!' It's the parading on British TV in a swimming costume I couldn't handle.
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.
My kind of work is very intense. The trouble with me is that I completely fling myself into it. I get giddy. I get terrible crushes on jobs.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
When I was a little girl, there was this unbelievably cool female bus driver who'd work near us. I remember thinking I'd like to be her when I grew up.
'Toast of London' is a must-watch. Matt Berry's off-the-wall humour is slightly surreal and a little bit deviant. That's why I also love 'House of Fools.'
I take bits and pieces from everything. But I think the Method can be very isolating, and sometimes it's more about ego than playing the character truthfully.
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!
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.
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.
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'm inspired by films from the early '50s, especially Jean Simmons in 'The Clouded Yellow' - and by vintage swing, psychobilly gigs, sea shanties, and English folklore.
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.
I'm very independent, probably quite selfish, and like being able to disappear at the drop of a hat without having to explain myself - most men would find that a pain, wouldn't they?
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.
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.
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 look up to the older generation of men - Arthur Scargill, Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn - but my main role model has been my step-granddad Jim. He's brilliant, very political, quite eccentric.
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.
Food is important in working out a character. How she eats is a window into her temperament. If I think she likes her food, I'll put on a few pounds, or lose a few if she lives on her nerves.
If I were to appear in a programme like 'Sex and the City,' I'm sure I'd be cast as the downtrodden one staying at home and having seven children while the others jet-setted around the world.
When I was growing up, because I was a bit overweight and boyish, I thought I wasn't attractive to the opposite sex, but I have since met lads from my school who said I just seemed unapproachable.
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 think all things are political... How women are portrayed - that's a big thing for me. What is this role trying to say about women? Is this woman weak or victimised, and, if so, do we get to understand why?
I know I sometimes come across as being quite dismissive about acting. But I'm not. It's like people reading their diaries in public. I don't want to talk about how I create characters. I find it self-indulgent.
It's interesting when people say, 'You always play strong women,' because as far as I'm concerned, women are strong. I think that's what women are. We have got that vulnerability, but we have got that strength. We are survivors.
I find these dramas fascinating - it's a world that many of us fortunately don't dip into. The legal system is all around us, but the majority of us don't have to go into a court, so it's a way into another world that is unusual.
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.
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 used to think the store detective had followed me all the way home and would knock on the door and go, 'Hello, is this your daughter? She's got three blue lipsticks and a moisturiser from Boots in her bag.' We just used to nick crap. Not even stuff we wanted.
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.
When I'm going to work, I often stop and wonder how I've got here. I don't mean literally, but just thinking back to when I first had the idea of being an actress, it seemed so unreal, so unlikely. People like me just didn't become actresses. Every new job I get comes as shock. It's almost as if I'm waiting to be found out.