Top 44 Nicola Walker Quotes

Once I was asked to do celebrity rowing, where they taught people who had been to Oxford or Cambridge to row against each other. That sounded like too much hard work: really early mornings and having to be quite fit, which I’m not.

Before I had my son, I became obsessed by this painting I’d seen in an art gallery. It was a lot of money, but I felt such a rush of adrenaline when I wrote the cheque to buy it. I thought I was going to gaze lovingly at it forever, but after just two weeks, I realised I didn’t really like it any more.

Most people feel like they’re out of step, so just have the conviction to go your own way.

I was on a tour of a Restoration comedy in 1996, and in Moscow we stayed at the Metropole hotel, off Red Square. The food there was opulent, but in the Maly theatre canteen, there were just a few pieces of rye bread, peanuts, and gherkins. I stood in the queue and burst into tears.

I have to admit to the occasional need for ‘Come Dine with Me.’ I am the most atrocious cook, and that’s probably why I find it so entertaining. It looks exotic to me.

I wish someone had got hold of me and said, ‘You know, children are really good fun. You will have a fantastic time, and you will still work.’

People very rarely know my real name but recognise me as characters from my shows, such as ‘Last Tango In Halifax.’

I’d really like to play Lady Macbeth.

There are a lot of women – directors, producers, writers – involved in my career. They are all interested in telling good stories, and good stories involve men and women.

There’s a really sweet spot with acting where you’ve finished a job, and you’ve got another one coming up in three or four months’ time. That’s my favourite period of unemployment.

‘Unforgotten’ was a bit of a no-brainer. I’m a big fan of crime dramas, but often the ‘investigation’ part goes much too smoothly – and you don’t get that with this.

It can be tough to turn things down, but as an actor, being in demand is a nice problem to have.

‘The Split’ is actually really hopeful – although it’s left me reeling slightly, thinking about what we do to each other in the name of love, within the contract of marriage.

It was really unusual that the crews on ‘Spooks’ were a real mix of men and women, and you’d struggle to see many women with parts that weren’t cliched back in the late ’90s.

Every interview I’ve done since I’ve turned 40, the journalist will say, ‘So, isn’t it amazing? Your career should be over, but you’re still working. Why do you think you have found a career at a time when a lot of women are slowing down?’

We lived in so many flats, and the more people you could get, the cheaper the flat was. Someone was always sleeping in the living room, and you’re always slightly hiding them when the landlord came round.

I’ve got a feisty face.

Breakfast is a battle. I never feel like eating, but I have now found my way to porridge. I have it with full-fat milk and banana.

I took a long time after ‘Curious’ to find something I really wanted to do.

‘Better do it than wish it done,’ is a phrase ingrained in my mind.

When you’re a kid, you imagine acting to be singing and fighting and like the movies. Then you become an actor and get the reality, which is often a lot more mundane. But sometimes it’s really nice to run around with guns saving the world.

In this industry, people like to look at different faces on their screens – even I do.

I completely respect the job our police do.

I was always about working. I like working. I don’t like being unemployed. I love acting.

I just want to carry on doing high-quality work.

I’d be an absolutely appalling detective… Appalling.

Don’t worry about fitting in – it’s completely over-rated.

I don’t really have a treasured possession, but I do love my family’s proper old photo album. We all have hundreds of photos on our phones now, but you can’t beat the old albums stuffed with black-and-white wedding photographs and 1970s Polaroids.

I noticed that, on ‘Spooks,’ there were a lot of women behind the camera and in different departments.

We bought a sofa with the money I made from ‘Thunderbirds,’ and I’ve still got it, and we call it Thunderbird 1. That’s literally all I got out of the job.

I’m a proper Essex girl because my family was part of that great exodus from the East End.

I am very good at keeping secrets, except when I am drunk, when I will tell you absolutely anything.

I find the whole ceremony of marriage a bit like going to work. Putting on a lovely dress and make-up, learning lines, someone doing your hair.

I started when I was 21, and it was always about getting the next job – like most actors, that’s all it’s ever been for me.

When the acting all dries up, I won’t be going there – either to the police force or to the church. I’ll have to think of something else!

My husband says I’m a grumpy lioness.

I’m married to a vegetarian, so if ever we go out to dinner, I go for kidneys.

Derek Jacobi is probably our finest actor.

My family moved out of London’s East End to a tiny village. The school I went to was supposed to be mixed gender, but there were hardly any boys born that year. So, yes, joining a youth theatre was a fun way to meet the opposite sex!

I can’t tell you the excitement to be in a new TV series or a play you’ve got to read for. That’s the best.

Once you’ve sat in a room annoying Derek Jacobi while he’s trying to do his crossword, you’re prepped for working with the greats.

It always makes me laugh to think that I get to sit around and chat with people like Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi and get paid for it.

I’m a hoarder, but then, when it all gets too much, I turn into a ruthless chucker. I’m very good at clearing out and giving stuff away. But I’m equally skilled at shoving things in a cupboard, shutting the door, and calling that ‘cleared up.’

As I get older, I get happier.