What does annoy me is when critics use me to ridicule my audience. All the stuff about 'Tesco housewives' and 'the blue-rinse brigade.'

I send a text every day to my partner Cath, saying 'I love you.'

I don't have hobbies. Other than watching telly and walking my dogs, what I do is work. That's who I am.

We're so stuck in our heads with social media that we don't get to meet people and go out to have a joint experience unless we go to a live event, like the theatre.

Ah, 'Kismet,' or Carry On Camel, as we called it. I thought the show was shocking. It was the worst designed production ever but it's got a fantastic score. It's not an awfully good book though. You really have to work hard to eke out any laughs from that script.

No-one has ever sung quite so beautifully as Karen Carpenter.

For the millennium, we flew to Kuala Lumpur and then on to Pangkor Laut, a nearby island.

When I was 19 and at drama school, a couple of friends and I decided to drive from Guildford through France, down to the heel of Italy and then take a ferry to Greece - in an MG Midget. On our second day, in France, we were in a very bad accident and wrote off the car so we had to go home. But we then flew out instead and went island hopping.

Country songs are theatrical songs, they tell stories, and wear the hearts on their sleeves and they have great melodies.

The first time I encountered Stephen Sondheim was like everyone else: through snatches of old songs people performed in drama school, through 'Send in the Clowns,' which everyone knew. I wasn't aware at the time that he was the writing force behind 'West Side Story' and 'Gypsy.'

Well, I try not to let people down in the work that I do or in how I conduct myself.

You can't get down and dirty at the opera.

You have to be on your game with a live audience because anything can change.

That's the only show where, if anyone says to me, 'Is there a role you want to play?', I say, yeah, I want to play Sweeney Todd. Stephen Sondheim's so clever; it's a profoundly brilliant piece of work.

This was a seminal moment in my life - my dad took me to see the original production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' at the Palace Theatre in 1973. I thought it was just amazing, so powerful. The idea of using rock music to tell the story of Jesus was incredible.

I understand the power of music, I understand the therapeutic nature of music, the sense of community that music engenders, so I totally understand why it still goes on, choirs come together as a focal point for a community.

You can't ever make assumptions about a family tree.

I tap my fingers and cheekbones before going on stage to calm down. But nerves are necessary; if you ever lose them, it's a bad sign.

Bacharach has such a brilliant ear for melody and his music has a completely timeless feel to it; I thought it would be great to do a whole album of his music and to record with a full orchestra and big band which is something I hadn't done before.

As a performer, once you've understood the genre of musical theatre, you can tire very quickly of the two-dimensional stuff. With Sondheim, it's always a challenge. It's difficult and exhilarating and he's so good on the complexities of relationships and on things going wrong.

You can generate a phenomenal relationship with an audience. It's very gratifying, a real privilege.

I love a drink. But I've never, ever in my life been on a stage and done a performance with an alcoholic drink inside me. Never have, never would. I've seen people who do and invariably they're never as good as they think they are.

I will always tour, it's hard work it really is hard work, but the feedback and the buzz you get back from it is worth it.

Songs from the theatre can be taken and put on record in a commercial and contemporary way, be reinvented and become standout tracks on their own.

I used to bottle things up.

Try to leave people feeling better for having met you.

All you have to offer as a performer is yourself.

I've recorded a few Bacharach songs over the years and performed some in concert and always felt they suited me.

I play roles, but when I'm off stage, I always try to be myself.

I need to have a sleep before a show and a quiet hour. I need to get dressed following the same routine. And I like to smell right for a show.

I'd always had this hankering to try some opera.

Musicals allow a depth of emotion that you don't get in another form of acting, the chord changes, the lyrics really affect people, so that in two hours, you've forgotten about things.

I'm a fairly traditional British cook, as my partner Cathy doesn't enjoy spicy food, although I like to experiment myself.

I adore Dartmoor, where I grew up, and the Cotswolds are amazing.

Wilbur Smith's novels make terrific holiday reading.

In 2005, I played Count Fosco in 'The Woman In White' on Broadway. It was a disaster. I was physically run down and terribly homesick and I just knew I had to leave. I lasted three months before the producers released me.

It's a mantra I've lived by for as long as I can remember. Nothing lasts for ever.

Working is learning.

I made a conscious decision to stop watching 'Big Brother.' I was an avid fan, but I felt it was time to move on.

Working every day isn't hard if you love what you're doing.

I absolutely love 'Big Brother' and 'Celebrity Big Brother' and have never missed a series - but I would never appear on them.

You must never ask or expect anyone to do anything that you would not be prepared to do yourself.

I sometimes feel I want to release an album without people knowing it is me.

I can't properly explain it, but I don't mind admitting I suffered a breakdown.

When you're on stage and the stars are aligned and the audience is as one and you're guiding them, steering them... It's a feeling of incredible potency, of unity, of such, such joy. It's almost overwhelming to know that you're making that number of people feel better.

I just work so much and so hard that I love the idea of being around family, friends and my animals quietly at home, just chilling out.

I do all the cooking at home and love it.

I've never been fashionable, so I'll never be out of fashion.

People will assume what a record is going to be like and they are loath to even give it a listen.

When I was starting, I was working with actors who came up through the rep system, and they understood the discipline required: you were never late for rehearsal, you were never not ready to go on, you were always prepared; it was about showing respect to the rest of the company.