Anne-Marie Duff

Well, to begin with, I foolishly thought I could stay at home and commute.

But it was hellish and caused lots of family stress.

And so eventually I left and moved to North London to be closer.

I had a little room, the way we all used to do, rent little rooms.

And then I fell madly in love.

That's quite exciting.

Yeah, it was fabulous.

Yes, an actor who is now very successful, actually.

Good.

And he was The Year Below, and we lived together, and it was the most perfect first love.

No, but in as much as it was kind, uncomplicated, fun, a bit messy, a bit sexy, sexy, sexy, and we were both...

It was a bit like, you know, in La Boheme, there are all these young students, all these young artists, you know, and it was all about the craft and, you know, and... You know, it was bliss.

It was really very difficult.

We were drifting apart, but I finished it.

It was just awful.

I was devastated.

Because I knew that I loved him more as a friend.

And that was devastating, that realisation.

I know, but that's... So how long did it take you to get through that?

Yeah, but I was in my mid-twenties and life went on and I was doing lots of theatre.