Vicky McClure

Oh, I love Nottingham. I know some people go, 'Oh God, there's not much going off there,' but I like staying in and going round to my mum and dad's for a Sunday roast.

If you have a passion and love for something, it's hard to give it up. I had jobs where the people were helpful and let me go to auditions, and I'd make up the hours another day. I was lucky in that respect: I could afford to get to London.

There are lots of people who haven't been to drama school who have great talent and can be discovered.

I danced from the age of three, so I was always going to do something performance-related. I got into the Television Workshop drama group in Nottingham when I was 11 and went there for ten years.

I'd like to do something where there's a strong female character and some action. I've done a few stunts in the past.

When I watch cop shows, I really enjoy them because you can really follow the story and get involved, and the characters are always really interesting.

I get to have Sunday lunch at my mum's, pick my nephew up from school now and then: it's a very normal life.

I'm strong. I like to mother people, look after people. I lead the gang.

I don't need a trailer; I don't need to have the luxuries of what is Hollywood, which is why I'm probably not so desperate to get there.

If Madonna asks anybody to go and hang out with them for a month, they'd all do it.

I know that people who have been to RADA and LAMDA can smash accents and do Shakespeare: all those things that I never really trained in.

I've always been a happy-go-lucky person. I haven't got any dark tales, I didn't draw on my own past, I'm from a very normal stable background and had an amazing childhood, and I haven't got any complaints really.

My first job ever was on 'Peak Practice.' I just had to walk up the stairs. They kept the take where I slipped slightly, which was annoying.

A journalist can make or break a case, in a way, because they can figure out things the police can't, or they can destroy people's lives.

Yes, I certainly look for strong characters - whether that means they're strong in their vulnerability or strong in the way they might be attractive to lots of blokes.

I'm not slim. I'm a curvy girl: I've got thighs and a bum. I don't mind baring the fact that I've got a bit of cellulite because everybody has. I find it off-putting when everybody on telly is the same size or looks the same build. For me, it's important for people to watch someone normal.

Eventually I just want to live a normal life. I want to get married and have children and cook, wash... all the things that I do now. My background is very normal and steady, and that's what I like.

It is Method on 'This is England;' it is. But it can't be Method on every job because it just doesn't work for everything.

I just feel like I'm such a normal person in an industry that is so chaotic and crazy. I am what I am, and I can't change it. And I don't want to change it.