I want to watch telly that reflects the world I see.
— Nicola Walker
I don't really have a treasured possession, but I do love my family's proper old photo album. We all have hundreds of photos on our phones now, but you can't beat the old albums stuffed with black-and-white wedding photographs and 1970s Polaroids.
I don't have a preferred medium of work, but like all actors, I do like to move from one to the other if possible.
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.
Most people feel like they're out of step, so just have the conviction to go your own way.
I could never be anyone I've played. I am so not a detective; I can barely get 200 yards from A to B with the help of Google maps, and I am just about the least observant person on the planet, so I never notice what people look like or how they walk or if they're committing a crime in broad daylight.
I've always had a resting expression that either makes me look deep in thought or as though I'm about to fight you. I've lost count of the number of directors asking me what the problem is when all I'm doing is sitting still and being.
I come from a family of scrap metal dealers, so becoming an actor seemed like a ridiculous thing to do, but I'd found the thing that gave me a kick, and I quickly became obsessed with it.
When you're a kid, you imagine acting to be singing and fighting and like the movies. Then you become an actor and get the reality, which is often a lot more mundane. But sometimes it's really nice to run around with guns saving the world.
It always makes me laugh to think that I get to sit around and chat with people like Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi and get paid for it.
The people I've met who are divorce lawyers, there's a sense of them having to look reassuringly expensive.
When I'm not working, as a family we are obsessed with jumping off rocks into the sea and doing dangerous things.
My two great fears are either not working or working on something that means you can't do something else you really want.
We're all used to seeing a lot of cop shows, some of them brilliant, some of them very generic.
I love being the first person to play a part. I really get a big thrill out of it.
There wasn't really anything I wanted to do other than acting, which is ridiculous because there were no actors in my family, and we didn't know anything about acting.
When the acting all dries up, I won't be going there - either to the police force or to the church. I'll have to think of something else!
It's satisfying to watch a story where you feel like you're a fly on the wall.
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.'
Every interview I've done since I've turned 40, the journalist will say, 'So, isn't it amazing? Your career should be over, but you're still working. Why do you think you have found a career at a time when a lot of women are slowing down?'
'Better do it than wish it done,' is a phrase ingrained in my mind.
My make-up call as Cassie on 'Unforgotten' is 45 minutes, and on 'The Split', it's considerably longer. They have to do your hair and your make-up. On 'Unforgotten,' I'm in and out, and I don't have to worry about how I sit for the whole day so as not to crease the clothes.
It can be tough to turn things down, but as an actor, being in demand is a nice problem to have.
People very rarely know my real name but recognise me as characters from my shows, such as 'Last Tango In Halifax.'
My family moved out of London's East End to a tiny village. The school I went to was supposed to be mixed gender, but there were hardly any boys born that year. So, yes, joining a youth theatre was a fun way to meet the opposite sex!
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 wish someone had got hold of me and said, 'You know, children are really good fun. You will have a fantastic time, and you will still work.'
I'm a proper Essex girl because my family was part of that great exodus from the East End.
Cornwall is my favourite place - I wish I could earn a living there.
My husband is an actor, and we don't talk about acting at home.
There aren't many shows that encompass roles for a seven-year-old to someone in their 50s.
My dad always jokes that if I ever write an autobiography, which I'm not going to, it'll be called 'It's Tough in the Middle.'
I find the whole ceremony of marriage a bit like going to work. Putting on a lovely dress and make-up, learning lines, someone doing your hair.
I would like to think that there are more women in positions of power, to actually get these projects off the ground that are more balanced, where the story is about men and women.
I took a long time after 'Curious' to find something I really wanted to do.
My two girlfriends from university, Sue Perkins and Sarah Phelps, are both in the business - and are both stupidly busy. We talk on the phone a lot and try to get out to dinner together, but our preferred venue is one of our kitchens with a lot of tea.
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.
Don't worry about fitting in - it's completely over-rated.
It's totally different playing a lawyer and a detective.
I live in dread that I might find myself in some sort of emergency, and everyone will turn to me and expect me to know what the correct procedures are.
Before I had my son, I became obsessed by this painting I'd seen in an art gallery. It was a lot of money, but I felt such a rush of adrenaline when I wrote the cheque to buy it. I thought I was going to gaze lovingly at it forever, but after just two weeks, I realised I didn't really like it any more.
When you're both actors, it is feast or famine financially and emotionally in your marriage.
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.
I started when I was 21, and it was always about getting the next job - like most actors, that's all it's ever been for me.
My husband says I'm a grumpy lioness.
I noticed that, on 'Spooks,' there were a lot of women behind the camera and in different departments.
I completely respect the job our police do.
The generation before me certainly told me that there would come a point when there were fewer parts, telling me to make hay while the sun shone. There was a time in my late thirties when I thought that it was something I had to get myself ready for, that things were going to slow down as I hit 40.
It was really unusual that the crews on 'Spooks' were a real mix of men and women, and you'd struggle to see many women with parts that weren't cliched back in the late '90s.
'The Split' is actually really hopeful - although it's left me reeling slightly, thinking about what we do to each other in the name of love, within the contract of marriage.
