My dad Donald was a vet and had a practice in Yorkshire. Cats and dogs were his bread and butter but his greatest love was large animals.

You know not having my real dad around and having a step dad made me want to be a great dad. So now I have been one for 9 years. And now 3 daughters. So that is what I am - a dad first and foremost before anything else. It's just something that comes natural now.

I think I had kind of an advantage. When I was growing up my dad had just got out of jail and he had a great record collection. He had - it was all - these were the songs. So I heard a lot of these songs like my whole life so for me it was easy. I already knew what I was going to sing.

I often talk with other actors about that time when you've just finished a job because I think you do take on the characteristics of some of the characters you play. Sometimes it can be a great thing and sometimes it's a bit haunting because you're not quite sure how to leave it on set. My dad talks about it as being 'de-personalised.'

I've got a really great family round me two sisters and an older brother and my mum and dad. Everybody's equal.

Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor a lawyer a scientist or a great humanitarian.

Both my mum and dad were great readers and we would go every Saturday morning to the library and my sister and I had a library card when we could pass off something as a signature and all of us would come with an armful of books.

I'd love to be a dad. I hope I'd be great at it. That's every man's fear yet his most important job.

I have great faith that Heaven's there and I'll see my brothers and my mom and dad when I get there.

My mom was a professional. My dad and mom met each other in a movie called 'New Faces of 1937.' My mom went under the name Thelma Leeds and she did a few movies and she was really a great singer and when she married my dad and started to have a family she sang at parties.

My dad used to draw these great cartoon figures. His dream was being a cartoonist but he never achieved it and it kind of broke my heart. I think part of my interest in art had to do with his yearning for something he could never have.

At one point my dad called me and said 'You have always been a great salesman. I think it's time you come home and sell swimming pools.'

I watched Italia '90 with my Mum and Dad and my brother you know leaping around the house when the penalties were on... It would be great to be part of that to have that kind of impact.

I think the hardest thing about making music now is being a great dad at the same time. There's an insanity that goes with writing - a mad scientist thing that you have to go through - and sacrificing a kid's upbringing to do that is not an option.

You do need parental guidance and I was in a great position with both my mum and dad. They split when I was a baby but even though I stayed with my mom they were both very much involved in my upbringing.

When I moved out of London 13 years ago I found a whole other reason not to drive. This was because my new husband Dan unlike my dad did drive and this became a great source of fun and adventure.

My humanitarian work evolved from being with my family. My mom my dad they really set a great example for giving back. My mom was a nurse my dad was a school teacher. But my mom did a lot of things for geriatrics and elderly people. She would do home visits for free.