10 Questions for actress Laura Aikman

WE find out a little more about the The Job Lot, Casualty and Waterloo Road star..

Casualty or Waterloo Road? I had to learn too many long medical words in Casualty, so I’ll pick Waterloo Road. Less stressful to make. The cast were really funny off screen and we had a weekly Dinner Club where we all laughed non-stop. Highlight of your career so far? The Keith Lemon show. There was no script and Leigh Francis and I improvised so much. It’s the most creatively I’ve been involved in anything as we both helped sell it to ITV. Lowlight? Doing short films. I feel it’s good karma to give something back to worthy projects, but for every good experience I’ve had there have been 10 bad ones. What’s your party piece? I don’t have one. I get drunk after 10 minutes and it always goes badly. Maybe it should be making the food, then letting others do the entertaining. Yeah, I could do that. Worst habit? Picking my spots, I’m afraid. Sorry.

Laura (right) with Angus Deyton, Laurie Brett and Neil Pearson in Waterloo Road (BBC)

One thing you’d change about yourself? I’m never confident trying something new. If I was asked to go ice skating I’d find excuses and think I was going to fall down and die. The Job Lot’s back on ITV 2. Who makes you ‘corpse’ on set? Russell Tovey. He is a great friend but he’s horrible. He brings out the worst in me and I never know what he’ll do next. He draws rude pictures on the set to put me off. One person, alive or dead, you’d like to have dinner with? Freddie Mercury. He went through a lot, but I’d only ask him one thing: “Would you please sing for me?” Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren? Meryl Streep every time. I’ve never, ever seen her be bad in anything. She is it! You’ve 24 hours left to live. How do you spend the time? I’d go to Bali, lie on a beach with a good book and, since calories would no longer count, I’d sip pina coladas from a coconut all day long.