Anne Reid

“For the first part of my career, I did what I was told, and I wasn't getting anywhere. I'd get in such a state when I was asked to do something, and it didn't feel right, and I'd end up feeling that I wasn't very good.”

“I tell myself things will be different in a few years' time, but this is the most wonderful, golden time for me. I'm basking in the success of 'Tango', really loving it.”

“I'm sick of it when people start to say it: 'Aren't you amazing?' If they start to say it, I hit them.”

“My teacher at RADA said I was going to have trouble when I left because I wasn't an obvious juvenile lead, although I could do both comedy and drama. But I understood enough to know that my career was going to be a marathon, not a sprint.”

“Maybe I'll get into a Bond film... I always thought I'd be a Bond Girl when I was young.”

“I like my own company.”

“My father fought in the war, and then he was posted all 'round the world with his job. So I didn't know him very well when I was young.”

“I'd make every weapon on the planet unusable. Every bomb. Every gun.”

“I'm quite surprised I ever got married in the first place.”

“I should be in an old people's home now, counting the roses in the wallpaper. It's a good life, isn't it?”

“I used to lie in bed and imagine I was performing at the Albert Hall, not that I'd ever been there. I took lessons with a German teacher when I was quite young. But it turned out I had a very high soprano voice, which I didn't like at all.”

“My parents were adorable. They were very kind, and very broad-minded compared to people of their generation.”

“I'm afraid sometimes I cram too much into my schedule. And I'm not very domesticated. I'm absolutely hopeless in the kitchen.”

“I'm past it now - love. I can't imagine it happening again.”

“I don't do so much acting work now, as there aren't the parts except for 'Tango'. So if I didn't have the cabaret work, I don't know what I would be doing.”

“I never thought of getting married again. I'm quite difficult to live with, I think.”