Nicola Walker

“We bought a sofa with the money I made from 'Thunderbirds,' and I've still got it, and we call it Thunderbird 1. That's literally all I got out of the job.”

“I love being the first person to play a part. I really get a big thrill out of it.”

“There aren't many shows that encompass roles for a seven-year-old to someone in their 50s.”

“I have to admit to the occasional need for 'Come Dine with Me.' I am the most atrocious cook, and that's probably why I find it so entertaining. It looks exotic to me.”

“Cornwall is my favourite place - I wish I could earn a living there.”

“I was always about working. I like working. I don't like being unemployed. I love acting.”

“I've got a feisty face.”

“There's a really sweet spot with acting where you've finished a job, and you've got another one coming up in three or four months' time. That's my favourite period of unemployment.”

“We lived in so many flats, and the more people you could get, the cheaper the flat was. Someone was always sleeping in the living room, and you're always slightly hiding them when the landlord came round.”

“You just have to look at me to know what I am feeling. So I would be a useless policewoman or spy.”

“The confidence and charisma it takes to stand up in front of a group of children absolutely terrifies me.”

“If you could make telly as good as radio, it would be amazing - audio can do things so easily that television can't.”

“When I bought my first little flat, it was two bedrooms, so I got Sarah Phelps to live with me. My years-later-to-be husband was slightly thinking, 'Why are you inviting your friends to live with you?' I was very resistant to leaving my friends.”

“The best thing my mum and dad did was to send me to the local youth theatre. I loved that; I felt I'd found the thing I really wanted to do.”

“It can be tough to turn things down, but as an actor, being in demand is a nice problem to have.”

“Once I was asked to do celebrity rowing, where they taught people who had been to Oxford or Cambridge to row against each other. That sounded like too much hard work: really early mornings and having to be quite fit, which I'm not.”

“I'd do anything with Tom Courtenay.”

“I found myself at Cambridge, loved my course, and met these amazing people who got me heavily involved. I presumed I would have to go to drama school, but I did a play with my uni friends, who were doing lots of pub theatre in London, and through that met my agent. She said 'Don't go to drama school. I'll get you a job' and two weeks later she did.”

“As I get older, I get happier.”

“I'm a hoarder, but then, when it all gets too much, I turn into a ruthless chucker. I'm very good at clearing out and giving stuff away. But I'm equally skilled at shoving things in a cupboard, shutting the door, and calling that 'cleared up.'”