I was always keen to get involved in the school drama productions and was a member of the school choir. I was lucky to have attended schools that took music and drama very seriously and the teachers were just brilliant.

After school I moved to London to get involved in music. I took the whole thing very seriously.

I never felt that I should have taken a 'regular job;' I was always lucky enough to be in regular employment as an actress.

The truth is that I am a very independent person and I've always been. That probably damaged some of my relationships with men.

Music and literature have always and continue to be massive influences. Writers such as Seamus Heaney and Frank McGuinness. I have always admired the humanitarians that I knew growing up in Derry whose influence steered me in the direction of some of the work that I have chosen in the past.

Music was massive from an early age. My parents were huge music fans, especially soul, and they played records in our house all the time, and me and my brother and sister would dance and sing about the living room.