I had two starts, really. The first was going to the Italia Conti stage school, aged 15. I'd gone to sing, but one day I found myself doing an improvisation and thought, 'Oh God, I quite like this acting thing.' The second start was meeting Mike Leigh when I was 22. He showed me I could play people that weren't like me.
I went to stage school with a neighbor to build confidence because I was quite shy.
I looked around one stage school when I was maybe nine. It just scared the bejesus out of me. I was incredibly open, and the girls seemed fierce and determined.
When I was a child, I went to stage school three times a week in the evenings - singing, ballet, tap, modern and acting, and I loved it.
I was the only one at stage school who wasn't white.
I've always had a passion for dancing, and I wasn't lucky enough to go to stage school, so when I got onto the show, I was like a kid in a sweet shop. I went into it just to have fun. The support was overwhelming, to say the least. It wasn't until the end of the show that I realised how much I really wanted to win it.
'At Freddie's' takes place in 1960s London at the Temple Stage School for child actors. It has a plot that makes you feel sorry for the people who have to write summaries on the backs of books.
'Britannia High' is this new, edgy series which follows the lives of seven kids, their friendships, and the troubles they go through at stage school.
I was at college studying psychology, philosophy, textiles and drama. But because I wasn't one of those all-singing, all-dancing stage-school kids, I just assumed I'd never become an actor.
I had left school at 16, gone to stage school - and, until I was 22, I hadn't really played anyone but myself. Then in 1979, I made a film with Mike Leigh called 'Grownups,' which went out on the BBC, and overnight this new career opened up.
I was at stage school in Birmingham Rep when I was called down to London for an audition in the National Theatre. Maximilian Schell, the film actor, was casting Tales from the Vienna Woods. He was looking at me for a small, but significant, role.
I'm always happy to blow up any misconceptions that people have about stage school cos everyone thinks it's really nasty there but it's not.
People think stage school is a little star factory but the truth is kids like me learned about being in a team situation and going out to work earlier than a lot of kids did. I don't know anyone from drama school who's now sitting on their arse doing nothing.
