Top 44 Anita Dobson Quotes

Radio means you can play parts that aren’t based on your looks or your age. It’s a lot of fun. You can do tremendous things – play more diverse characters – that you wouldn’t get to do in theatre or TV.

I was appearing on ‘Top of the Pops’ when I was in my mid-thirties or something. It was fantastic! But it was the weirdest thing, I’ll admit. Was I me? Was I Angie Watts? Was I me as Angie? I didn’t have a clue, but I was having enormous fun all the same.

Brian and I have ups and downs like every marriage does. Although he’s a legend, he’s still, inside, an ordinary man, and I have got to remember that once we get inside the door, it’s just us two.

I’m very protective of friends and family.

My parents used to go ballroom dancing in their latter years, and it gave them so much pleasure.

I went from being a jobbing actress who was just earning a living to being the second most photographed woman in Britain, next to Princess Diana – but it was exciting, too, and I wouldn’t have swapped it for a second.

Whether the public like me or not, I am who I am.

I’m a great believer that you should always tell people they are wonderful, as we’re all insecure at heart, especially in our industry.

I love to chit-chat and used to be the first to arrive at a party and the last to leave.

I got extremely fit and slim on ‘Strictly,’ but I did find that, each week, a different part of my body hurt. It really makes you realise the hard work dancers have to put in and how fit they have to be.

I think you can do as much damage to yourself going to the gym and running as you do good. So my mission in life is just to keep myself ‘good’ – in good health, as fit as I can be, a little bit of stretching, and just think positive and enjoy life.

I am very glad I did ‘EastEnders,’ and I’m flattered that people still remember me in it.

My father was a dress cutter, and my mother was a tailoress, so I was brought up to appreciate a good frock.

You don’t get everything in life. You make decisions and have to live by them. If you make the right decisions, at the time you have no regrets.

There’s no secret it’s hard work. Even though Brian’s the love of my life, and he’s absolutely adorable, it’s not easy, and we have to work at it. But because we love each other and keep working at it, it pays off.

‘Silver Street’ was a very happy time for me.

Every morning, I have a coffee to wake up my system, but I don’t think you should eat just because it’s a meal time, so I often won’t have breakfast until late morning.

I think if you make a decision to leave a job, a home, a relationship, then you’ve usually got a pretty major reason to do so, and you should probably stick with that.

The last place you’ll find me is the gym. It seems to me to be a waste of time – I could spend that time doing so many other things.

Going to drama school was the start of my journey of discovery and getting to know myself.

I can do glamour, but I can also play something like I did in the play ‘Wild Justice,’ where I was demented with grief and anger, and there was snot coming out of my nose, and my clothes were all over the place.

When I walked away from my role as Angie in ‘Eastenders’ all those years ago, it was a huge risk, but I always had this great desire to do so many things.

For me, to be on television and not be afraid of making a mistake is freeing.

‘EastEnders’ changed everything. I was a jobbing actress living in Stepney, and I was on the dole at one point. Then people started to send me scripts, which was always my dream.

Once, I was followed by a car when I was driving. Every time I sped up, the car sped up, and when I slowed down, it slowed down. Eventually, I stopped, got out and screamed, ‘What do you want?’ He said, ‘I just wanted to give you some flowers because I’m such a fan.’ I felt awful. He was just being kind.

You can’t stop getting older; you just have to keep going and laugh a lot.

I thought that’s where I would go: I would become a Shakespearian actor.

I went into acting because I wanted to be seen being someone else, not me!

People are innately curious.

If I had to live on a desert island, and somebody gave me a chicken, there’s no way I’d kill it – I’d call it Henry and make it my friend.

We learn by misfortune.

To be playing Joan Crawford is as good as it gets.

People who are geniuses, once they get going, you really have to keep up.

When I was a kid, I used to watch all those Sunday afternoon matinees featuring all the Hollywood greats.

To make a marriage work, you have to want to. If you want to stay with that person, you will. It’s simple.

You turn down work you feel you’ve already done.

I don’t love the fact that gravity is winning as I get older, but there’s also a calmness that comes with it, which I’m secretly enjoying.

Wonderful things happened to me – I met my husband, I got invited to previews and premieres, I was asked to do fashion shoots and front covers of magazines. You’ve just got to embrace it and do the best you can.

I first got engaged when I was 19, but I just knew there was more of life out there for me. I called it off six weeks before the wedding. I felt terribly guilty because he was such a nice boy, and I was in love with him. But it was the wrong time.

In the days of ‘EastEnders,’ I couldn’t go into a pub or supermarket, as people would recognise me and follow me home.

I think when I started out, when I was very young, I wanted to be an actor and do the great epic tragedies.

I was brought up in the East End, and if a man was inappropriate in a bar, you’d throw your drink over him.

I’ve got a great life – my friends, my marriage, my career, my health – and I’m on ‘Strictly,’ and I’m learning to dance.

I’ve been working in radio on and off for most of my career. There’s a restfulness about it. It’s more focused on the voice, so you don’t have to worry about extraneous things like sound effects, as there’s someone there to look after that.