Hattie Morahan

What's exciting about theatre is observing human behaviour. You're constantly making judgments about body language, the physical, the emotional, the intellectual.

Because I didn't go to drama school, I didn't start in the business with any toolbox apart from enthusiasm and instinct. I'd throw everything at a part and sometimes realise that I had hit my limits.

I'm sure my mum was a huge influence on my wanting to be an actress: just seeing her doing it, seeing her love it, caring about it. Invest in something, take it seriously and be so wonderful.

As the mother of a grown son with a traumatic brain injury, I couldn't be more excited about the prospect of finding out how to repair even a small part of the damage that changed his life.

As a young child my attention span was, as I remember it, rather short.

It's just certain people that I get the giggles with.