My Own Style Is One Of Not

I Found A Lot Of Comfort In The Fact That 30-odd People Have Been Companions Before Me. I Think That When There Are So Many People Contributing So Many Things To The Show, All You Can Do Is Make It Your Own. You Can't Try To Emulate Anyone, Because Who Would You Pick? The Companions Are Very Much The Everyman, And The Audience Watches The Story Through Their Eyes, So They Could Be The Person Next Door. And Everybody's Different.

I Was Very Much Into Science When I Was Young - I Wanted To Be A Marine Biologist, Then I Wanted To Be A Doctor, And Then Something Else, I Was Always Changing. Acting Didn't Come Up Until Much Later, Probably About 16 Or 17. I Thought, "oh, I Quite Like This."

I Went To University After My A Levels And Did A Degree In Performing Arts. It Was Only When I Got There That I Realized There Were Stage Schools Out There, And You Had Your Union And Your Contacts And The Spotlight And This Whole World Of The Acting Industry That I Had No Idea About. So When I Graduated, I Took A Year Out And Just Thought Really Hard About Whether It Was Something I Knew Enough About, And Whether It Was The Career I Could Dedicate The Rest Of My Wacky Life To.

My Own Style Is One Of Not Much Effort.

I'm Not Very Glamorous.