I remember stealing some pic n’ mix when I was seven; when I got out of the shop, I burst into tears.

At 17, we all think we know what we’re doing.

I’m starting to shake it off, I am quite self-conscious, and it’s only when I’m playing roles that I can escape that. The older I get, the more people tell me it’s absolutely fine to be the way you are with all your quirks and nuances, and I wish I’d learnt that younger – I would have relaxed a bit more.

I’m really into strong, female roles – but they don’t have to necessarily be loud – I’m just as interested in introverts too.

Everything you listen to when you are 17 should be embarrassing, otherwise you are way too cool.

And it’s as you get older that you realize that the things that make you strange are the things that make you who you are. And that’s a lovely place to get to.

I like to accessorise shirts with a little ribbon tied round my collar or a country style ascot. I’ve also sewed little hearts on some of my sleeves which I’ve done for years because I always wear my heart on my sleeve so if you see a little embroidered heart on my clothes, that’s why!

I’ve read my grandmother‘s memoirs and she served as a nurse during World War II. What they had to do was incredible.

Girls in scripts are often pretty but brainless, or geeky and no one likes them, so it’s great to find richer roles. Chalk and cheese aspects of people are very interesting to play.

I trained as a ballet dancer and fell in love with Rudolf Nureyev; I thought him the most beautiful creature. My mum had to break it to me that not only was he gay, but he was dead.

I don’t know if I’m so righteous.

When you get a bit older and you realise that no one knows what they’re doing, no one’s perfect and it’s fine.

There’s a reason hobble skirts are called hobble skirts. You literally can’t move very far in them.

I filmed ‘Albatross‘ before I got ‘Downton.’ It’s a coming-of-age movie about this girl who leaps into this family‘s life, like a whirlwind. She’s ballsy and brash and wonderful, it was such an amazing character to play.

I’m hungry for a cold and mean character – I’d love it if someone thought I could play gritty. I want to play a baddie, someone really scary.

I love when people become obsessed with ‘Downton.’

I absolutely adore Alessandra Rich, I think her dresses are stunning and she really knows how to cut and dress the female shape. Her stuff is really beautiful, stylish and a little bit quirky. I love it all!

I love when people become obsessed with Downton.

Unfortunately I had an ankle problem and underwent three operations.

I shout at the radio when someone starts talking over the end of a song. Shut up! I don’t want to hear that the DJ has just found a mouldy sandwich in the corner of the studio. Nor do I like it when the magic of something you’re watching is shattered by an advert for Argos.

I just really think every job I do, I get this gypsy attitude to money.

I trained as a ballet dancer till I was 18, so I would really like to get back to it. I’d love it if there was a part that meant I could do both acting and ballet, as they’re both so close to my heart.

I trained as a ballet dancer – well, I started when I was two and a half, and was serious about it from when I was eight until I was 18.

Before I go on stage, I knock three times. Three is my lucky number; I once went into an audition and was number 333 and got the best part ever.

I am a hopeless romantic.

You don’t automatically assume everyone will fall for a period drama.

I don’t mind giving everyone a shock – including myself.

Ever since I was young, I’ve read Austen and the Brontes. My friends laugh, but those books are always so tragic and wonderful – those stories, they’re just incredible.

The first episodes I actually read for ‘Downton,’ Sybil was really intimidated and hadn’t come into her own. So it’s only in Series Two that she’s become so headstrong. In general, I find it exciting to play strong, female roles because they’re shocking.

I’ve been told I make a very good brew.

I really enjoy auditions anyway because I think that even if you come out of them, and you go in once and it never goes anywhere, there is something that you bring out of it or a note that will come back to your agent and that’s the way you learn.

I’ve got four piercings in my left, so we’ve dubbed my right one the ‘period drama ear.’ I have to be filmed from that side when I do emotional close-ups in ‘Downton.’

I have endless playlists on my iPod so will throw on, say, Bruce Springsteen or The Smiths, depending on what kind of day I’m going to have.

I do so many things. Like when I was younger, if I drove past a house that I didn’t want to live in, I’d hold my breath. Driving around somewhere like Slough I’d go blue in the face.

You never think you’re as old as you’re ever going to get.