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I've been going to Bamburgh for holidays since I was a child.
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I still remember going to a smart restaurant in Los Angeles, and the maitre d' knew my name and showed me straight to a table even though we hadn't booked. I get stopped for autographs by people from Sweden on the tops of mountains.
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I honestly don't think I sought fame. It wasn't something I courted or wanted, particularly.
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I hate anything with 'celebrity' in the title, where people are playing to the cameras all the time.
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Dementia is often regarded as an embarrassing condition that should be hushed up and not spoken about. But I feel passionately that more needs to be done to raise awareness, which is why I became an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society.
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Let's just say I've never relied on my looks to make a living.
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Mum had regular mental tests with her specialist, but because of her academic background, she became brilliant at manipulating them.
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Oxford has a slightly mythical rep, particularly for people who haven't been there.
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I'm not interested in more money for the sake of it.
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Put me on telly, and I think I have a relaxation on camera that makes an audience relax, too. It's not a conscious thing. Cameras don't bother me, whereas other people try to perform to them.
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I'm the captain of the Variety Club over in England, and so I'm playing golf for them once a week but doing odd bits.
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I'm not very relaxed; I always need to be doing something.
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I wish people would take more care of the countryside.
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I am lucky in that I have never been depressed in my life, but this is the one thing which has really affected me: the loss of my mother as I knew her.
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In TV, you just have to decide the night before exactly how you're going to say it and stick with that. You can't kick it around; you haven't got time.
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Being a grandparent is whole new phase in your life.
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It always staggers me when series don't use their sidekicks.
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McQueen is an astonishing film maker. He uses really unusual shots and builds incredible dramatic tension.
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I wanted to be a stage actor but I got stuck on television. It took a couple of years to get used to.
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I'm not interested in more money for the sake of it. You're aware that if you're nicking all the budget, somebody else is getting threepence ha'penny, or the production values aren't going to be so high.
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You get pigeonholed. Some people are film stars, and some are theatre stars who do one-off telly. Somehow, I get into long-running series.
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You can't converse with Alzheimer's sufferers in the way you do with others; the dialogue tends to go round in circles.
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I know actors who court personal publicity because they believe no publicity is bad publicity.
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From the time you are a tiny baby, a parent's love is usually unconditional. Whatever you do, your parents think you are the tops, but when their memory goes, you stop recouping the love you've put in.