The greatest lesson my father taught me was to live my life with passion. He was passionate about tiny, ordinary things. One day, we were driving along and saw a pheasant that had been killed on the road. He got me out of the car, saying: ‘Come and look at these feathers; how beautiful they are.’ He clipped some off and we went home and tied them to fishing flies. ‘Now the life of the pheasant goes on,’ he said.
Whatever my children need comes first. I remember when my daughter, Megan, was very ill – she was 16 and on a school trip to Cornwall. I was about to go on stage in the Lake District when I got the call, and I said to the audience, ‘I’m really sorry, I promise I will come back and do a show for all of you for free, but I have to go now, because my daughter is not well.’ And I did go back and do a show when she was better. I always try to keep my promises.