I suppose because I didn't think I could do anything else after a while. I started out being a chef [then] working in an office and thinking that I was going to be a clerk and all that stuff.

It was in the Civil Service of all things, but I worked in an office for a couple of weeks and that put paid to that. So I tried something that I thought was just going to be fun, and went to a youth theatre whilst I was still working as a chef and loved it. I loved the aspect of creating something that people could believe in, even though I'd just made it up.

I remember the first day I went in I built a wall, obviously out of thin air, but the audience or the people who were watching it completely accepted that I was building this brick wall and I just thought, 'that is magical.' So that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.