The following quotes are from an interview in The Mirror, 21 February 1997

On the filming of the cliff-hanger ending when Jude is stabbed: It was really spooky. I had this weird premonition I was going to die. Every night, I went home from filming feeling really spaced out and upset.

On Casualty: It's death and disaster every week. It's a rally grim show, and you do get involved with the stories. It's not surprising that you get a bit down. I was spending yet another Sunday in the resuscitation unit when I thought: 'I've had enough of all this blood and gore. I want to do something fun...I was so depressed watching [the episode where a boy is injured after catching his father and uncle in bed together]. I thought it was awful, really unbelievable. I'd been on a high from filming good episodes, and that made me feel like crying.

On the character of Jude: Sometimes I think I don't act and she's just me. She works harder than me, and she's a bit less thoughtful, but otherwise we're very similar. That's another reason for leaving. I don't want to be typecast for the rest of my life.

On being a nude model for the artist Euan Uglow: At first I was very prudish about it, but then I felt really liberated. during coffee breaks I used to walk about the studio still naked, with a fag in my mouth. I posed for him for two years - and he never finished the picture. That did irritate me.

People do come up and chat to me in the street and I really like it. They ask me about the series and tell me what they think Jude's next move should be. They're always charming to me and really friendly.

On the abortion storyline: I was expecting loads of hate mail, but I didn't get any. I thought I might get attacked because pro-lifers can be such nutters. But it was clear that we'd tried safe sex and it had failed.

On the NHS: It doesn't cease to shock me, the conditions they work under. We have better equipment on the Casualty set than our advisers have at Bristol Royal Infirmary. They told us there was an anaesthetic machine we had that they'd been wanting for years. For a month, they had no blood pressure or ECG monitors in the casualty department, and we had two. I kept saying they should borrow them, but they said they couldn't. It's just awful. [My grandmother] had a pacemaker put in on Christmas Eve and they kicked her out on Christmas Morning. My mother found a private nursing home for her, but that just shouldn't be happening. I think thousands of people must be dying every month because of the Government's wilful running-down of the NHS.

On her own health: [Casualty] has made me realise this is the only body I've got, and I tend to be very anti-drink-driving now. But after 12-hour days, I don't have the discipline to exercise. I'm suffering from daylight deprivation from filming in a window-less studio. I felt like I was becoming institutionalised. They send a car for you every morning, they feed you and give you drinks, and take you home. It was turning me into a bit of a baby, incapable of taking care of myself.

On the Casualty cast: They're a really nice bunch of people. Guest stars have said it's the nicest show they've ever worked on. I think they're quite unegotistical as actors go. Everyone realises that people like us because they like nurses so much. We're all a bit ashamed that we work much less hard and get paid much more than real medical staff.

On her upcoming project Joint Venture, about a woman whose husband is dying of multiple sclerosis: I think medicinal uses of dope should be explored. I don't think it's fair, if people are suffering and this is something that could help them, for it just to be ruled out.