I love England and the historical aspect of it.
King Henry VIII, who said to his lawyer, Forget the alimony, I've got a better idea. Never got a dinner!
Mary Queen of Scots is the most 'normal' girl who became a queen that I have ever written about.
She [Mary I] married Philip King of Spain, who in her sister's reign, was famous for building Armadas.
My official field was Tudor-Stuart England; I also considered myself reasonably competent when it came to Renaissance and Reformation Europe.
England was a cold, backward, rebellious little kingdom. It's king: Henry the Eighth, remembered principally for his six wives and the chicken legs clutched in his fat fists.
I am a huge admirer of Elizabeth I, and this intriguing biography gives a wonderful picture of the era.
Anne Boleyn is certainly the most exciting character I have played on stage.
I am fascinated by Tudor times.
I think I was born in Elizabethan times.
It is difficult to know how the Tudors actually spoke because we're going back before Shakespeare; much of the drama from that period is courtly, allegorical.
There's four biggies. There was Elizabeth I, George III, Victoria, and the current queen, who really dominated four eras.
You end up with this succession of periods when everything was marvellous - from King Arthur to the medieval times, Ivanhoe, chivalry, Henry VIII, Merry England, the Blitz
I went to grad school with the grand plan of getting my Ph.D. and writing weighty, Tudor-Stuart-set historical fiction - from which I emerged with a law degree and a series of light-hearted historical romances about flower-named spies during the Napoleonic wars.
Anne Boleyn is an intriguing character. She seems to appeal to modern-day women in a very potent way. Because she was such an independently opinionated and spirited young woman, which at the time was unheard of.
Few people know anything of the English history but what they learn from Shakespear; for our story is rather a tissue of personal adventures and catastrophes than a series of political events.
English history turned on Henry VIII and his desires, his whims almost. And it was down to Cromwell to make those desires happen. He was the guy that fixed it. He was also the guy that eased Henry's conscience. Because Henry VIII had an enormous, tender conscience and great theological knowledge.
We have far too many Tudors. Henry VIII is far too over-rated. He's become the ultimate brand name, like the Marks & Spencers of a high street of British history. I'm more interested in King Herod.
The Tudors, I don't even know if I had a family back then.
After Mary Queen of Scots, I turned to the farthest subject possible: Cromwell.
There was a woman in Elizabeth I's court that happened to have the same family name as me.
I think that the benefit of playing someone like Queen Elizabeth is that so much has been written about her, and there's so much speculation about her - was she a hermaphrodite? She's so mythologised, and there are a lot of images of her.
In fact I'd like to go back and live in Shakespeare's London.
My experiences thus far had me planning to throttle the first Tudor historian I met upon my return for gross dereliction of duty.
Anne Boleyn was a warrior forced to use the only tools available to a woman in her position at that time. She was bold and ambitious, and had she had a son, history would have been very different.
