Growing up, there was only classical music on BBC Radio. We had to listen to the American Forces Network in Germany, which played pop songs, or the pirate radio boats off the coast.

Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.

I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.

I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.

They make three types of movies, and if you don't make one of those three, you have to find independent financing: It's either big-action superhero tent-pole thing, or it's an animated film, or it's an R-rated, raunchy sex comedy. They don't make movies about real people.

Catherine Tate was a proven comedy actress from a comedy background with great taste. I knew her work, and was an incredible fan.

I think the key to working with my husband is that collaboration in comedy is best.

The minute I started doing comedy, the doors opened.