A biography for Maxine Peakehasn’t been written yet.
“'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 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 watch 'Take Me Out' mainly for Paddy McGuinness. When we were younger, we worked together as lifeguards at the Bolton Leisure Centre.”
“I've always fancied being a bit of warrior, on a horse swinging a sword around, sorting out the men... Oh yes, that sounds lovely.”
“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?”
“Pay in the acting world hasn't kept up with inflation.”
“We need a wider sense of community because we're all on the same planet.”
“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.”
“I'm a big techphobe. Someone else helps me run my Twitter; I wouldn't be able to trust myself.”
“I'm always an advocate of 'acting is reacting,' which can be difficult.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Sometimes it feels like the feminist movement never happened.”
“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.”
“The first posh meal out I had was on my 10th birthday.”
“The women I play don't sit in the corner eating lettuce leaves and talking about what designer shoes they have.”
“I love hoovering. People go to therapists; I've got a Hoover.”
“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.”
“They always said to me that I needed to be more feminine. I think it's so wrong. Being boisterous doesn't mean you are not feminine.”