Running Gave Me A Focus To Start

I Was On Holiday Recently And I Came Home To Find That One Of The Papers Here Had 'bikini'd' Me On The Beach. I Was Wearing A Grossly Unflattering Costume And They Had Published Photographs Of Me Taken From Behind. I Looked Dreadful. I Went Into Our Local Newsagent And Bought Up Every Copy.

I Think You Know What You're Up Against When You Take On A Piece That You Know Is Going To Involve Dragging Up A Lot Emotions - You Can End Up Being Deeply Immersed In Gloom.

I Could Suddenly See The Pressures All Around; These Endless Magazines And Cheap Reality Tv Programmes Poking At Women, Humiliating Us For Every Flaw. It Makes Me So Angry. I Really Wonder What It Is We Are Doing To Ourselves, Because I Do Think Women Can Be The Worst Ones For Picking Each Other Apart.

Being An Actor Is An Extension Of Telling A Story And I Loved Story Telling As A Child.

I'd Been Gearing Up To Working In Theatre Since Coming Out Of Drama School, But It Was An Exciting Time For Tv Drama - It Was The Birth Of Channel 4, And Brookside Was Very Cutting-edge At The Time.